History of Hickory North Carolina
Under a huge Hickory Tree, Henry Robinson built a tavern of logs in the 1850s. The city of “Hickory Tavern” was established around this in 1863 and the name was eventually changed to “Hickory” in 1873.
The first train ran through this city in 1859. The community of Hickory was first in many things in North Carolina including the council-manager form of government it adopted in 1913. Hickory was also one of the first towns to have electric lights in 1888 and a complete sewage system in 1904.
One of the oldest furniture manufacturers can be found here and is still operated on the original site. During World War II, the factory made ammunition boxes for the U.S. Military instead of furniture.
In 1944, during the height of World War II, Hickory became the center of one of the worst polio outbreaks ever recorded. Since local facilities were inadequate to treat the victims, citizens of Hickory and the March of Dimes built a hospital to care for the children of the region. It only took 54 hours for the community to put together the equipment, doctors and patients in the new facility. More buildings were quickly added and A Red Cross official on the scene praised the project “as the most outstanding example of cooperative effort he has ever seen”. This event was later known as “Miracle of Hickory.”
