William A. Hoke
Lincolnton, Lincoln County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
William A. Hoke 1851 1925. Chief justice 1 year & assoc. justice 20 yrs., N.C. Supreme Court. Superior court judge 13 yrs. Birthplace stood here.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
William A. Hoke (1851-1925) rose through the North Carolina courts to serve two decades as an associate justice and one year as chief justice of the state Supreme Court, after thirteen years as a superior court judge. His birthplace stood on this site.
Why it matters
Hoke's long service helped shape North Carolina's legal system during a formative era of state jurisprudence.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William A. Hoke
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
U.D.C. Memorial Hall
Lincolnton, NC
This building began as the Pleasant Retreat Academy, chartered in 1813 during an era when private academies were the backbone of American secondary education. Over the generations it also served the community as a public library and museum before being preserved as the U.D.C. Memorial Hall. It stands one block east.
J. G. Arends
Lincolnton, NC
Born in Germany, J.G. Arends emigrated to become one of the earliest Lutheran ministers and teachers on the North Carolina frontier, ordained in 1775. In 1803 he helped organize and became the first president of the North Carolina Lutheran Synod. His grave lies a few yards east.
Henry L. Smith's X-Ray Experiments
Davidson, NC
Only weeks after Wilhelm Röntgen announced the discovery of X-rays, Davidson College professor Henry L. Smith was already experimenting with them in his physics laboratory. In February 1896 he produced radiographs and explored their medical uses, famously imaging a bullet lodged in a corpse's hand. His work placed a small Carolina college at the frontier of a revolutionary new science.
Rutherford College
Rutherford College, NC
Rutherford College grew out of a private school opened around 1853 by educator R. L. Abernethy, becoming one of the small church-affiliated colleges that dotted the North Carolina Piedmont. The Methodist Church ran it from 1900 to 1933 before it closed in 1935, its original campus lying a little over a mile north.