Founded in 1846, Gaston County was partitioned away from Lincoln County and named after NC Congressman, legislator, and member of the NC Supreme Court, William Gaston (whom John Quincy Adams considered appointing Secretary of War). The county is best known as one of the nation’s bastions of textile manufacturing.

While Gaston tried to establish an agrarian economy, it was only successful at growing corn, which led to some serious whiskey distillation and the nickname “The Banner Corn Whiskey County of North Carolina.” From 1845 to 1848, Gaston experienced the beginnings of an industrial boom when three cotton mills were founded. By the 1950s, more than 150 textile mills were operating in the county, which earned Gaston another nickname: “The Combed Yarn Capital of the World.”

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Loray Mill was built and was widely thought to revolutionize the scale of manufacturing in the South. Dubbed the “Million Dollar Mill,” the Loray Mill (also known as the Firestone Mill) was the largest mill under one roof and initially employed more than 3,500 people. In 1929, dramatic cuts to staff and labor costs led to more than half of the staff walking off the job, creating the largest labor dispute in North Carolina’s history and a pivotal moment in the national labor movement.

Gaston, which borders Mecklenburg County to the west, consistently ranks in the top 10 most populous counties in the state. The eastern edge of the county has especially grown in recent years as Charlotte has sprawled.

But Gaston hasn’t grown at the same clip as other major Charlotte suburbs or exurbs, and its (Republican-dominated) politics have remained remarkably stable over the past decade. The moat separating Gaston from Mecklenburg, and the lack of a major bridge connecting the counties might have something to do with that. But Differentiators Data has no official position on the Garden Parkway.