Liberty

It all began before Scotch, Irish and English colonists settled in this area. Liberty was primarily inhabited by the Catawba Indians, a branch of the eastern Sioux tribe. Fertile crops, bountiful hunting grounds, and a nearby river made Liberty a virtual garden of Eden for its original residents.

Around the year 1750 the future of this area would change forever. A mass migration was underway. 'The Great Wagon Road' as it was nicknamed brought immigrants from the north with their dreams of affordable land. Traveling by wagon-train, crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia thousands of colonists descended upon the Piedmont.

The Town of Liberty once part of Orange county, and later Guilford County would eventually become part of Randolph county after secession in 1779. Only three years earlier the Declaration of Independence was signed throwing the town of Liberty and nearby counties into ground zero for the Revolutionary War. While population of the entire county was less than one thousand people, only a few small plantations, and farms made up the area called Liberty. During the war soldiers camped out in what is now Liberty. A large Oak tree in the center of the camp was used as a make-shift town-square, meeting place, and ultimately a place to hang war time criminals. The soldiers called it the Liberty Oak, after the Boston "Liberty Tree" a national symbol of individual liberty & anti-tyranny; popularized by the "Sons of Liberty" and the hanging of tax collectors during the 1765 British Stamp Act Imposition.

In 1807, it was that same tree that John Leak, Liberty's first official resident would build his plantation around and later give the town its first official name of "Liberty Oak".

It is obvious even by the year 1809 people began to call the town Liberty from preserved official land transactions now located in historical archives in Asheboro. It is because of these findings that Liberty's town seal bears a picture of the "Liberty Oak" and has 1809 as a founding date, although the charter date is 1889.

In 1886 the Liberty Academy, a tuition paid school began in Liberty. The town quickly gained a reputation as an educated, upper-class area. With bright minds flowing its streets. Access to Liberty was easy due to the railroad and local depot. In 1889, the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railway in a publication referred to Liberty as a town "where many contemplated and actual improvements evince a spirit of progress and enterprise. A fine school is established here, which for discipline and curriculum of study has already taken high rank among educational institutions of that section."

During the 20th Century Liberty eventually evolved into a textile and manufacturing mecca thanks to the railroad and its convenience to the center of town. Liberty eventually gave birth to the Liberty Chair Company remarkably employing more workers than the town had citizens.

During the 60's encompassed in the civil rights movement. While the nearby town of Greensboro was bringing news of the Woolworth's sit-ins- Liberty laid metaphorically split into two different towns. Liberty & West Liberty.

Eventually Liberty began to fuse again into a single town many years later. The downtown Curtis theater which posted segregated bathrooms and balcony at one time would be transformed into a musical-arts outlet giving way to several other artistic venues from which the town now is known for. Today Liberty is diverse composite of various races, cultures, & people who have moved here from all over the world to call it their home.

Patterson Cottage Museum

Liberty Chair Company

Wesley Benton Owen

Wesley Benton Owen was instrumental in keeping law and order in Liberty, as its first marshal. Beginning with his assignment in Liberty in 1889, he would become popular with the citizens of Liberty by stopping train robberies, bank heists, and counterfeiters. He would eventually go on to be mayor of Liberty in 1907.

Roy C. Reitzel

Roy C. Reitzel was a mayor of Liberty in the 1920s.Reitzel was the motivating force behind the construction of Liberty's first water and sewer works. Voted out of office, likely because of the associated cost of drilling two wells and putting up a water tower; it's because of Reitzel that today, Liberty has nine town wells with over 975,000 gallons of water in storage and over twelve miles of sewer lines that serve its nearly three-thousand residents. For this reason, many consider Reitzel ahead of his time.

The former town hall, now senior center, is named after Reitzel in his honor and is a hub of activity for the town's retirees' and seniors.

Paul Henry Smith

Grandchild to the infamous Wesley Benton Owen. Paul Smith, gained his notoriety as mayor of Liberty beginning in 1965. He was praised for his collective and conservative handling of racial integration during his term. Because of his service to Liberty, he would later have a park named in his honor as Paul Henry Smith Park.

Liberty Academy

Located on what is today Liberty School. The Liberty Academy opened on May 6, 1885. With one teacher and a initial class of twenty one students, it quickly gave Liberty its reputation as the center of educational possibilities in North Carolina. Eventually the school would evolve into the Liberty Normal College a school for training teachers. This began in 1899 and continued till 1909 when it became Liberty graded school, and a public school to the town of Liberty. It continues to operate today as a elementary school under the Randolph County School System.

Joe Frazier

Professional baseball player and manager, Joe Frazier was born in Liberty, NC. At the age of 25, Frazier broke into the big leagues on August 31, 1947, with the Cleveland Indians.

Liberty Heritage Wall

The wall, actually a mural seven feet tall and 20 feet wide, located in the hallway which connects the town hall to the town library was the brain child of Beverly Wilson. In 1999, Wilson and Liberty artist Brenda Shelton designed the montage of historic places and things represented on the wall. Several dozen volunteers used that design to carve and paint the 140 clay tiles which make up the wall. Seagrove artisan Ad Vanderstaak fired the tiles and mounted them to the wall.

The wall incorporates images of such places as the train depot, the old firehouse and the Curtis Theatre. An oak tree with the date 1809, recognized as the founding date, occupies the central portion of the wall.

The creation of the Liberty Heritage Wall was used as a fund-raising effort by members of the Patterson Cottage Museum committee to raise money for the museum and to restore the town's 1949 fire truck.

Sandy Creek Baptist Primitive Church

As the genesis for the beginnings of the church of the Southern Baptist, the largest Protestant organization in the world. Liberty has had historical, and religious influences that can be felt throughout the planet. It all began in 1755 when 16 Baptists worshipers descended upon an area just outside of Liberty. Led by Elder Shubal Stearns, of Connecticut they founded the Sandy Creek Baptist Church.