HOA Management in Stallings, NC

The Town of Stallings is located between Matthews and Indian Trail

Stallings, North Carolina, or the Town of Stallings, is located in Union with a portion in Mecklenburg counties. The Town of Stallings is located between Matthews and Indian Trail. Stallings is situated along the U.S. Highway 74 corridor and is a suburban bedroom community of Charlotte, North Carolina. Stallings is approximately 15 miles from uptown Charlotte. 

The population of Stallings in the 1980 U.S. Census was 1,826, and the estimated 2019 U.S. Census population was calculated at 16,145.

On June 24, 1975, Stallings was incorporated as a town by the North Carolina Legislature. However, the history of the Stallings community dates back to 1903 when Matthew Thomas Stallings (1867 – 1935) purchased approximately 200 acres in Union County. The Seaboard Air Line Railway rail lines ran through the 200-acres and were approximately a mile from Indian Trail. M.T. Stallings moved from nearby Harrisburg, where he was a prominent farmer and merchant. He had also been a magistrate in Harrisburg for six years. M.T. Stallings had an entrepreneurial spirit and constructed a large general store on his new property next to the Seaboard Air Line Railway rail lines. His general store becomes a hub for not only selling groceries and other retail items but for the distribution of other locally grown farm products, such as cotton and watermelons. M.T. Stallings began improving his property in hopes of attracting other enterprises and industries to come and establish a settlement. 

In the early to mid-1700s, Scots-Irish and Germans settlers arrived in the future Stallings area. These early settlers were predominantly subsistence farmers with small individual farms. With the continued development of the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia, immigration to the area increases drastically after 1744. At this time, the future Stallings would have been within the large old Anson County borders. In 1762, western Anson County was divided to form Mecklenburg County. During this time, the future Stallings was located within Mecklenburg County. In 1842, the western part of Anson County and an eastern portion of Mecklenburg were partitioned to create the current Union County lines.

The future Stallings was considered the border area between the Catawba Indians and the Waxhaw Indians. Though, there is historical debate whether the Waxhaw Indians were a separate tribe from the Catawba Indians or just a band of that tribe. This debate revolves around some Native American Historians theorizing the similarities of their customs and language. Both shared the Siouan language, and both shared a unique ritual of intentional deforming or flatting of their infant’s foreheads. This deforming was achieved by strapping infants to boards. This ritual resulted in moving the eyes unnaturally further apart in addition to the sloping forehead. 

If the Waxhaw Indians were actually a separate tribe than the Catawba people, their tribe was no longer in existence after the early 1700s. This is attested to by a noted early 20^th century Native American historian James Mooney. In his writing “The Aboriginal Population of America North of Mexico,” published by the Smithsonian Institute in 1928, he estimated that in the year 1600, the Waxhaw and Sugeree Indian’s population in the Catawba River Basin was around 1,200 (The Sugeree Indians lived in the Catawba River Basin with the Waxhaw Indians.). In this writing, Mooney furthermore noted that the remaining members of these two tribes had integrated with other larger Native American tribes by 1907. 

Conflicts between other Native American Tribes and clashed between European settlers had negative consequences on their population. Though, nothing had the effect that the spread of European diseases had on Native American people who had no natural built-up immunities. Smallpox, first introduced by European colonists in the early 1600s, devastated the colonial Native American population. Native Americas in the Catawba River Basin were hard hit by these smallpox epidemics of the 1700s. Before the British colonial period began, it is thought that there were up to 25,000 Catawba Indians in the Piedmont regions of the Carolinas. Conflicts reduced the Native American population, though smallpox played a much larger role in the extreme population decline by 1775. By this point in history, the Catawba Indian population was estimated to be 400. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the Catawba Indian population had only increased to 2,600 in 235 years.

As the Native American population decreased in the area in the 1700s, European settlers arrived in the region in greater numbers. These immigrants were primarily Scots-Irish and German Palatines (also known as the Pennsylvania Dutch). Settlers began arriving in larger numbers in the 1740s. The primary route from many being the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania. The left fork of the Great Wagon Road (The branch that led to Augusta, Georgia, by way of Lancaster and Camden, South Carolina.) was near the future Stallings. These new immigrants were mostly subsistence farmers, peppered with a few tradesmen. To survive, these tradesmen likely farmed in addition to their particular trade.

What Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton chronicled about Charlotte and the countryside: “The town and environs abounded with inveterate enemies; the roads were narrow and crossed in every direction, and the woods were close and thick. As had been frequently mentioned to the King’s officers, it was evident that the counties of Mecklenburg and Rowan were more hostile to England than any others in America. No British commander could obtain any information in that position that would facilitate his designs or guide his future conduct. The foraging parties were every day harassed by the inhabitants, who did not remain at home to receive payment for the produce of their farms but generally fired from covert places to annoy the British detachments.”

Patriots and their supporters practiced passive and nonpassive resistance to the British forces and the loyalists. Patriots were emboldened by a victory against loyalist forces at the Battle of Ramseur’s Mill in Lincolnton on June 20, 1780. One engagement that became known as the Battle of Charlotte occurred on September 26, 1780, exemplifies the feelings towards the British forces. Patriot militiamen from around the region, totaling 160, engaged British soldiers at the Mecklenburg Court House, which was located at Trade and Tryon streets in Charlotte. The general commanding the British Southern Campaign was Lord Charles Cornwallis. Cornwallis and his forces spent 16 days in Mecklenburg County and the surrounding counties, unsuccessfully trying to quash the rebellious inhabitance. Upon leaving Charlotte, Cornwallis was reported to have stated: “Let’s get out of here; this place is a damned hornet’s nest.” Thus, the origin of the popular nickname for Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, “The Hornet’s Nest.”    

The conclusion of the American Revolution in 1783 brought peace to the region, but the overall way of life continued pretty much the same. The economic base for the future Stallings area continued to be centered around agriculture. Farms were still typically small, and farmers continued to be subsistence farmers. Beginning in the first part of the 19^th century, subsistence farming slowly evolved into farmers cultivating cash crops with larger farms. Cash crops are crops grown for the market. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 is what spurred this evolution. The production of cotton was an estimated 17,571 bales in 1830 for North Carolina. By 1840, cotton production had nearly doubled to 34,617 bales in North Carolina. Within ten years, North Carolina cotton production had doubled to 73,845 bales by 1850, and production had almost double again by 1860 with 145,514 bales annually. 

The end of the American Civil War (1861 – 1865) brought Reconstruction to the south. The period after the Civil War brought an economic downtown for the south that lasted for many years. The future Stallings area was not exempt from these economic troubles. Many farms and farmers transitioned back to subsistence farming to just survive.   

In 1874, the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherfordton Railroad laid tracks through the future Stallings. The Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherfordton Railroad was reorganized as the Carolina Central Railroad in 1880. The Carolina Central Railroad was purchased by the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1890. The Seaboard Air Line Railway added a scheduled stop at Stallings around 1909. Mark Conder opened a sawmill in Stallings in 1902-1903. This sawmill became Stalling’s first industry. Conder and M.T. Stallings had a falling out over some matter that led to years of litigation between both parties.

Stallings United Methodist Church was founded in 1911, and the first Methodist Church was built in 1912. The church is struck by lighting in 1919 and burns down. This is despite the efforts of a bucket brigade. A new church is constructed. Around 1912, a one-room schoolhouse opens today near what is the 1100 block of Stallings Road. There were around 75 students. 

In the mid-1960s, residents of Stallings and Indian Trail formed the Sun Valley Water Association to provide drinking water to the area. In 1975, Union County took over the Sun Valley Water infrastructure, and this eventually serves as the basis of the county water system that followed. The Union County water system was the nucleus for much of the population growth in Union County for the last forty years. 

On June 24, 1975, Stallings was incorporated as a town by the North Carolina Legislature. This incorporation by the residents was spurred by the concern of forced annexation by the nearby town of Indian Trail. At this time up until 2006, forced annexation was common in North Carolina. Forced annexation is an annexation by which a municipality unilaterally forces residents of unincorporated areas to live in their municipality. To quote the John Locke Foundation, “Only a handful of states are considered forced-annexation states, and North Carolina is extreme even among those states.”

Forced annexation in North Carolina came to an abrupt halt in 2006 with the ruling from the North Carolina Supreme Court case of Nolan v. City of Marvin: “The primary purpose of involuntary annexation, as regulated by these statutes, is to promote ‘sound urban development’ through the organized extension of municipal services to fringe geographical areas. These services must provide a meaningful benefit to newly annexed property owners and residents, who are now municipal taxpayers, and must also be extended in a non-discriminatory fashion. Under that definition, forced annexation in N.C. is not achieving its primary purpose. Forced annexation is not used for sound urban development. Municipalities are simply ignoring the areas that need services and annexing those areas that do not need services.”

During this time period, the concern of forced annexation drove a number of unincorporated communities to incorporate in avoid this fate. Nearby Mint Hill is another example of a community that was incorporated to stave off possible annexation by Charlotte.

In 1975, Carl Stallings became the first mayor of the newly incorporated Stallings. The town council utilized the United Methodist Church for their council meetings until 1979, when the new town hall was completed. It was estimated the citizens of the newly incorporated Town of Stallings totaled around 1,800. The first U.S. Census of the new town was in 1980, and the population totaled 1,826.

AEP Industries arrived in Stallings in 1977. AEP is a manufacturer of film and tubing. This company became the town’s largest employer. Between 1990 to 2000, Stallings’ population increased from 2,132 to 3,189. Business enterprises increased from around 200 in 1991 to 1,070 by 2012.  

In 1987, the Union County Commissioners approved the creation of the western sewer system. This new sewer system was completed in 1989. This new infrastructure is what led to the rapid growth of Stallings in the 1990s up through today. In 2001, Stallings annexed the Stevens Mill area. This annexation more than doubled the size of Stallings from 2.27 to 5.06 square miles. The annexation increased the population from 3,189 to 7,489. By 2019, the U.S. Census estimated the population of Stallings to be 16,145. 

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