Mount Ulla Township, Rowan County, North Carolina facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mount Ulla
Township
Mount Ulla, N.C., USA Emblem
Motto(s):  Faith. Family. Farms
Location of Mount Ulla Township in Rowan County, N.C.
Mount Ulla Location in the United States
Country	United States
State	North Carolina
County	Rowan
Settled	1740s
Named for	Ulaid
Area
• Township	28.52 sq mi (73.9 km2)
• Rural	28.52 sq mi (73.9 km2)
Elevation (mean)	830 ft (253 m)
Population  (2010)
• Township	2,525
• Rural density	57/sq mi (22/km2)
Race
• White	95.8%
• Black	2.1%
• Hispanic	1.9%
• Two or more	0.9%
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
ZIP code	28125
Area code(s)	704, 980
GNIS feature ID	990591, 1027149

Mount Ulla Township is one of fourteen townships in Rowan County, North Carolina, United States. It is currently the smallest township in Rowan County by population.

History

The John Carlyle and Anita Sherrill House, Back Creek Presbyterian Church and Cemetery, and Rankin-Sherrill House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Adjacent townships

• Atwell – south
• Barringer, Iredell County – southwest
• Chambersburg, Iredell County – northwest
• Cleveland – north
• Steele – east

	Chambersburg Township, Iredell County	Cleveland Township
			Steele Township
		Mount Ulla Township, Rowan County, North Carolina
	Barringer Township, Iredell County	Atwell Township

Economy

Historically Mount Ulla has been a farming community and has remained such till today. Some of the notable farms and farm stores in the area are

Plans are underway to build a solar farm in Mount Ulla.

Demographics

Population

According to 2010 US Census Bureau Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics, there were 2,525 people residing in 28125 zip code area. Twenty-five and a half percent of residents are ages 0–19. Citizens over 65 years of age comprise 14.9 percent of the population. The median age of a Mount Ulla community resident was around 42 years. Male population was 51% vs 49% female. Close to 63% of households are husband and wife families.

White residents make up almost 96% of the population, Black - around 2%, Hispanic/Latino - almost 2%.

Eighty percent of residents have at least completed high school. Fifteen percent of residents have received bachelor degree or higher.

Language

Mount Ulla residents speak rural Piedmont North Carolina dialect of Southern American English. The Scots-Irish that settled the area in the middle of the 18th century influenced the local dialect. Settlement pattern in this part of Piedmont, isolated farmsteads rather than towns, explains microdialect differences that can be heard among many descendants of the Scots-Irish today. Evidence of Scots-Irish origin of the dialect can be seen in an iconic grammatical language form of the a-prefix with words ending in -ing ("he is a-hunting') where a- is pronounced as "uh"; lexicological form "over yonder". One feature of local dialect in pronunciation is a change of the unstressed final o sounds as in words ending in -o and -ow to -er that results in fellow becoming feller. Further reduction of words can be seen as well in potato sounding like (po)tater or mosquito like skeeter.

Religion

Mount Ulla residents are predominantly Protestant Christians. The following churches have served the community:

• Back Creek Presbyterian Church (PCA), founded in 1805
• Centenary United Methodist Church, established in 1884
• Ebenezer United Methodist Church, established in 1853
• Knox Chapel United Methodist Church, erected in 1888
• Mount Tabor United Presbyterian Church, founded in 1867
• Mount Zion Baptist Church, Boyden Quarters
• Oakland Presbyterian Church, founded in 1867, now closed
• Sills Creek AME Zion Church, founded in 1872
• Shady Grove Baptist Church
• Smith Chapel Apostolic Church
• St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church, founded in 1869
• Thyatira Presbyterian Church, founded in 1750

Transportation

• NC 150
• NC 801

Miller Air Park, a private airport

In 1898 the North Carolina Midland Railroad extended Winston-Salem-Mocksville branch to Mooresville, where it connected to the Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio Railroad. Mooresville junction created a through route directly connecting Winston Salem with Charlotte. The railroad branch operated as a secondary main line. Scheduled manifest trains transported three primary products---furniture, textile, and tobacco products. Passenger trains, Carolina and Asheville Special, operated between the two endpoints of Winston Salem and Charlotte which also provided connections to points beyond until the 1960s when automobile and airplane travel made passenger trains obsolete. Mount Ulla was a scheduled stop for passenger trains, while Bear Poplar and Mazeppa were flag stops. Steele's Feed and Seed (Bear Poplar) and Mount Ulla Flour Mill were commercial shippers along the rail line. In 1915 Southern Railway leased the railroad branch. Today Norfolk Southern operates what is called a NS "L" Line through Mount Ulla.

Notable people

The following list includes notable people who were born or have lived in the vicinity of Mount Ulla, North Carolina.

• Thomas Cowan, a Revolutionary War Captain
• Thomas Gillespie, American Revolution Commissary, Thyatira elder, and Great-Grandfather of James K. Polk
• Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, a pioneer Presbyterian preacher, the first permanent minister at historic Thyatira Presbyterian Church, a teacher and a leader in establishment and promotion of public education in North Carolina, the inceptor of a public university and a founding father of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Robert Hall “Hall” Steele, a Rowan county government official who oversaw economic development, farmland, environmental, and historic preservation in the county.
• Daniel and Will Thrailkill, award-winning bluegrass, gospel, contemporary bluegrass, and jazz musicians; members of Back Creek Bluegrass Boys and Trailblazers bands.
• Natalie Wilson, a homebirth and breastfeeding advocate, researcher, and translator; a co-founder of La Leche League in the former USSR; co-founder of the first largest online Russian breastfeeding support community Lyalechka; the editor and translator of Womanly Art of Breastfeeding into Russian.
• Margaret Ella Wilson Thomas, a vernacular gardener, cultivator of irises, peonies, and daylilies who was born in Mount Ulla, N.C. An iris was named "Margaret Wilson Thomas" in her honor and in appreciation for her contribution to American iris culture.
• Ashton White, the first woman to place first in SkillsUSA North Carolina and national masonry competition.

Images for kids

• 

  Area of Rowan County in 1833 where Mount Ulla township was created in 1868, including creeks, roads, towns, and Cathey's Creek Meeting House.

• 

  Mount Ulla Barn Quilt, the largest community barn quilt in the United States in 2019

See also

In Spanish: Municipio de Mount Ulla para niños