CHARLEVOIX 



1280 



CHARLOTTE 



boat connection with all important ports on 

 the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Electric lines 

 operate west from the city. Charleston was 

 built around a fort that was erected in 1786. 

 It was incorporated as a town in 1794 and as 

 a city in 1870, and since that year has been 

 the capital of the state with the exception of 

 ten years when Wheeling was the seat of 

 government (1875-1885). The population in- 

 creased from 22,996 in 1910 to 27,703 in 1914, 

 and the city now ranks third in the state. 



Charleston lies between high hills a mile 

 apart. A beautiful boulevard extends for miles 

 along the river bank ; lined by trees with over- 

 hanging branches, and bordered with elegant 

 homes, with wide, well-kept lawns, this is the 

 most exclusive residential district. Everywhere 

 there is an abundance of flowers, foliage and 

 magnificent old trees. The Capitol, a $300,000 

 Federal building, a customhouse, county court- 

 house, Y. M. C. A. building, a public library, 

 a convention hall and a monument to "Stone- 

 wall" Jackson are features of interest. 



The vicinity of Charleston is rich in deposits 

 of bituminous coal, salt, iron, oil and timber, 

 and because of its fine shipping facilities by 

 rail and water, for the Kanawha River has an 

 excellent system of locks and dams, the city 

 is the distributing point for all these products. 

 An abundance of natural gas promotes interest 

 in manufactures. Here are large railroad re- 

 pair shops, boat-building yards and one of the 

 largest ax factories in the world. There are 

 also glass, color and veneer works and lumber 

 mills. S.P.P. 



CHARLEVOIX, shahrle vwah' , PIERRE FRAN- 

 CIS XAVIER DE (1682-1761), a French missionary 

 and traveler, whose writings form a valuable 

 part of the early literature of Canada. Charle- 

 voix became a Jesuit in 1698, when he was 

 sixteen years old, and from 1705 to 1709 taught 

 at Quebec. Later he returned to France, but 

 in 1720 was back again in America, this time 

 to gather information about the "Western Sea," 

 which was then supposed to lie only a short 

 distance west of the Mississippi River. He 

 ascended the Saint Lawrence River and the 

 Great Lakes as far as Michilimackinac (now 

 Mackinac), then reached the Mississippi by 

 way of Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, 

 and descended the Mississippi to New Orleans 

 in a small boat. His knowledge of New 

 France is displayed in his best-known work, 

 Histoire et description generate de la Nouvelle 

 France (that is, History and General Descrip- 

 tion of New France). 



Charlevoix, MICH., the county seat of 

 Charlevoix County, named for Pierre Charle- 

 voix, is 210 miles northeast of Grand Rapids, on 

 the Pere Marquette Railroad. It is best known 

 as a summer resort. Population in 1910, 2,420. 



CHARLOTTE, shar'lot, N. C., a commercial 

 and industrial center of importance in the state, 

 and the county seat of Mecklenburg County. 

 It is situated on Sugar Creek, near the south- 

 ern state line, about midway between the 

 eastern and western borders. Raleigh, the cap- 

 ital, is 174 miles northeast. The city has the 

 service of the Southern, the Piedmont & North- 

 ern, the Norfolk Southern and the Seaboard 

 Air Line railways. The population, which was 

 34,014 in 1910, had increased to 37,951 in 1914. 

 The city's area is thirteen square miles. 



Charlotte is the trade center for an agri- 

 cultural and cotton-growing section, and the 

 kindred cotton industries claim its chief inter- 

 est; these are cotton-weaving and the manu- 

 facture of cotton-mill machinery, cottonseed 

 oil and other by-products. In this locality 

 there are more than 400 cotton mills, operating 

 5,000,000 spindles. Fertilizers, belting, sad- 

 dlery, harness, drugs, cement and various kinds 

 of machinery are also made here. Gold depos- 

 its are found in this section of the state, and 

 a branch mint was established here in 1838; 

 at the beginning of the War of Secession it was 

 closed, but was reopened as an assay office in 

 1869. 



Charlotte has a Federal building, county 

 courthouse, an auditorium, Y. M. C. A. and 

 Y. W. C. A. buildings, many handsome 

 churches and fine business buildings. The 

 number of its benevolent institutions is above 

 the average for cities of its size. In addition 

 to its private and public schools, there are the 

 Presbyterian College, Saint Mary's Seminary, 

 North Carolina Medical College, Elizabeth 

 College and Conservatory of Music for young 

 women, a Carnegie Library and a library for 

 colored people. Biddle University (Presby- 

 terian) for colored students is outside the city 

 limits. 



The place was settled in 1750, was incorpo- 

 rated in 1768 and in 1774 became the county 

 seat. Here on May 20, 1775, the Mecklenburg 

 Declaration of Independence (which see) was 

 adopted, and a monument has been erected 

 to its signers. In September, 1780, Lord Corn- 

 wallis occupied the city and during his stay 

 pronounced it a "hornet's nest," a name since 

 then adopted by the city as its emblem. 

 Charlotte was also the headquarters of Gen- 



