The near-perfect-square county of Person was created by Caswell County’s split in 1791. The county is named after Brigadier General Thomas Person, a Revolutionary Patriot who was also a trustee and significant donor to UNC-Person Hall at UNC-Chapel Hill is named after him.

Person County contains part of three major river basins, which has made it vital to providing clean water to the Eastern and Western parts of the state, and it’s home to the increasingly popular Hyco Lake, where at least two Differentiators Data subscribers spend their summers.

A need to diversify the county’s economy following the Civil War led to textiles becoming one of the dominant industries during the 20th century. Manufacturing continues to lead the county’s private-sector economy.

Like many rural North Carolina counties, Person’s population has not grown over the past decade, and its politics, once reliably Democratic, have become solidly Republican.