Siler City was incorporated on March 7, 1887 by the North Carolina General Assembly. The story of how the town came to be is told in Wade Hadley’s book produced for the town’s centennial.
Hadley notes that the first settlers came into western Chatham in the 1750s. The area was populated by family farms for one hundred years before the town that was to become Siler City came into existence. The Siler family was one of the earliest to arrive in the area.
By 1805, John Siler was living on a farm of 615 acres situated where the town now is, and by 1815 he was operating a country store near his home. Two regional roads crossed nearby—one running east/west from Raleigh to Salisbury and the other north/south from Greensboro to Fayetteville. The crossroads is believed to have been where what are now North Chatham Avenue and Second Street intersect. The north-south road ran in front of the Siler house. Location, location!
After John Siler’s death, William W. Matthews bought the Siler home and land in 1842. He provided food and lodging to travelers on stagecoaches that passed on the roads near his house. The place began to be called Matthews Crossroads and was the place where people from surrounding areas came to vote and pay taxes. By 1880 a rural post office called Energy was opened at Samuel Siler’s store at Matthews Crossroads.
Hadley says that the opening of the railroad through the area of Matthews Crossroads was the stimulus which caused a town to develop there. The Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway completed its track between Sanford and Greensboro in 1884. A local train depot was built and named Siler Station for Samuel Siler, who had deeded the land for it. The name of the post office was changed to Siler Station at this time.
When construction work for the railroad reached the area, the land between the Matthews house and the depot was under cultivation as a cotton field. That is where the central business district of Siler City developed. The advantages of rail over horse and wagon transportation were enormous. Rail allowed supplies to be brought in and regional products to be shipped to outside markets. Siler Station was where the transfer of freight to and from the railroad took place—leading merchants to open stores and warehouses to be built near the railroad. Streets were laid out and named. (Only Raleigh Street retains its original name.)
Starting in 1884, the town grew quickly. By 1887, the town had seven stores, a tobacco warehouse, three livery stables, three hotels, a planning mill, a sawmill, and a cotton gin. Twenty-five dwellings had been built since 1884. Although Pittsboro was one hundred years old when Siler City came into existence, Siler City’s population was twice that of Pittsboro by the time it was thirty years old.
The post office was renamed Siler City in 1886. On March 7, 1887, Siler City was incorporated. The town limits were defined as being one-half mile from the depot of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad and running with the four cardinal points of the compass. The town limits have since been extended.
From Wade Hampton Hadley’s The Town of Siler City: 1887-1987. Photo is the Siler-Matthews House.
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