Charlotte, North Carolina

===18th century===
By 1759, half the Catawba tribe had died from [[smallpox]], which was an endemic among European colonists the Catawba did not acquire because of [[immunity (medical)|immunity]] to the new disease. At the time of their largest population, the Catawba population was 10,000. But by 1826, the Catawba population dropped to 110.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://clclt.com/theclog/archives/2012/12/21/question-the-queen-city-who-were-the-native-americans-that-lived-here-before-charlotte-was-colonized|title=Question the Queen City: Who were the Native Americans that lived here before Charlotte was colonized?|website=Creative Loafing Charlotte|access-date=April 11, 2016}}</ref>

The city of Charlotte was developed first by a wave of migration of [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]] Presbyterians, or [[Ulster-Scot]] settlers from Northern Ireland, who dominated the culture of the Southern Piedmont Region. They made up the principal founding population in the backcountry. [[German Americans|German immigrants]] also settled in the area before the [[American Revolutionary War]], but in much smaller numbers. They still contributed greatly to the early foundations of the region.

Mecklenburg County was initially part of [[Bath County, North Carolina|Bath County]] (1696 to 1729) of the New Hanover Precinct, which became [[New Hanover County]] in 1729. The western portion of New Hanover split into [[Bladen County, North Carolina|Bladen County]] in 1734, and its western portion split into [[Anson County]] in 1750. Mecklenburg County was formed from Anson County in 1762. Further apportionment was made in 1792, after the American Revolutionary War, with [[Cabarrus County]] formed from Mecklenburg.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/mecklenburg-county-1762/|title=Mecklenburg County (1762)|publisher=North Carolina History Project|access-date=June 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626074059/https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/mecklenburg-county-1762/|archive-date=June 26, 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref>