Caldwell County was formed out of Burke and Wilkes counties in 1841 and is named for Joseph Caldwell, the first president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The county’s creation was not without its conflict. Originally introduced in 1839, the bill to create the county was initially rejected due to disagreement about whether the legislature should create two Democratic counties instead of one Whig county. The bill to create one county eventually passed two years later. Nearly equidistant to Asheville and Charlotte, the county seat of Lenoir is the county’s most populous and gets its name from Revolutionary War General William Lenoir.
Like many of the surrounding Western North Carolina counties, Caldwell’s economy was predominantly founded upon manufacturing and agriculture. Sawmills is the second most populous community in the county and was aptly named for the town’s many mills providing lumber for furniture companies. Hometown of country music star Eric Church, Granite Falls gets its name from the granite boulders and falls situated along Gunpowder Creek. The town was established in 1791 by pioneer Andrew Baird, who built an iron works plant, which paved the way for a future cotton mill, bottling factory (today, Granite Falls has the largest collection of soda pop memorabilia in the world), lumber yard and other manufacturing endeavors to set up in Granite Falls. The introduction of the railroad in 1884 elevated Caldwell’s status as a leading manufacturing county, most notably, in furniture manufacturing.
The first furniture factory, Harper Furniture Company, was built in Lenoir in 1889. While Harper is no longer in business, many of the early furniture companies of Caldwell such as Bernhardt, Broyhill, Fairfield, and Kincaid are still operating and have become world leaders in furniture design and production. Bernhardt is the oldest, founded in 1889 by John Mathias Bernhardt, and is still headquartered in Lenoir. An orphan at 13, Bernhardt worked in the local general store and later in the lumber industry in Lenoir. This latter experience inspired him to start his own company, which originated in handcrafted bedroom furniture made out of white oak. Known today as a luxury furniture brand, the family’s fourth generation currently owns and operates the company, and is the nation’s largest family-owned furniture company. Bernhardt has remained a pillar of the community for more than 135 years and reinvests a portion of its profits into nonprofits serving Caldwell County.
In 1926, James Edgar Broyhill founded the Lenoir Chair Company. By the 1940s, he had bought up six local furniture companies and organized them all under the banner of Broyhill Furniture factories. Broyhill is said to be a pioneer of marketing and creating accessible and ready-to-assemble furniture. Like Bernhardt, the Broyhill family also invested heavily in the community, credited for helping build Lenoir’s first hospital, as well as the city’s golf course. Broyhill’s son, Jim Broyhill, made a name for himself in North Carolina outside of furniture. Republican Representative Jim Broyhill represented North Carolina’s 9th and 10th congressional districts from 1963 until 1986, when he was appointed by Gov. Jim Martin to complete the term of US Senator John Porter East, who had committed suicide in June of that year.
While manufacturing continues to be a primary economic driver for the county, in recent years, Caldwell has joined neighboring rural WNC counties in what has been dubbed the NC Data Center Corridor. Home to Google’s data center complex, the tech titan invested $1.2 billion in the facility and created more than 250 jobs. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, tourism also contributes a great deal to Caldwell’s economy.
Politically, Caldwell has long been a strong county for Republicans. The county has supported the GOP nominee for president in every election, with the exceptions of FDR, LBJ, and Jimmy Carter. Republican support in the county has only grown, with GOP candidates winning the county by margins of more than 50 points in recent elections.
