History
As in other areas along the waterways, centuries of Native Americans created settlements, increasingly permanent, along the Chowan River. At the time of European contact, the Chowanoke occupied most of the territory along the river. After suffering dramatic population decreases likely due to European infectious diseases, to which they had no immunity, most were pushed out by encroaching Tuscarora.
With early settlement in the mid-17th century by English colonists, the county was organized in 1779 from parts of Chowan County, Hertford County, and Perquimans County. It was named for General Horatio Gates, who had commanded the victorious American colonial forces at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.
Read more about this topic: Gates County, North Carolina
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“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no complicated interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign powers, the present may be hailed as the epoch in our history the most favorable for the settlement of those principles in our domestic policy which shall be best calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure the blessings of freedom to our citizens.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)