Samuel Cox House c. 1800
The two main avenues of land traveled into Windsor were the Halifax Road and the Cashy Road. A portion of the Cashy Road was laid out in 1717 and travelled through the northeastern section of the county. The Halifax Road existed in 1770 and entered Windsor from the west. This became the main thoroughfare due to the early seat of Governmental Affairs at Halifax, and later as the Post Road from Bertie.
By 1832, Windsor had grown until it had its own newspaper, the Windsor Herald. There were, according to Volume I, Number 22 of the paper eight businesses located and prospering in town. The population court revealed 128 white and 160 colored inhabitants, including three doctors, two lawyers, three shoe makers, a carpenter and a tailor. Other businesses included a blacksmith, ice houses and warehouses along the river. There were two taverns or inns, four cotton gins, a turpentine still, a printing office, a post office and twenty dwellings. The courthouse had been built a few years before, but a new jail was being constructed.
In 1847, an act was passed in the General Assembly which incorporated the town. The newly incorporated town had now become a farm oriented community. Plantation life prevailed, and the town became the church, social, and trade center for the many famrs in the surrounding area. It also became a center for banking under the state chartered N.C. State Bank. The Windsor Branch of this bank was founded sometime in the 1830's and, by 1860, could boast of a million dollar capital and of being one of only two in the northeastern region.
By 1850 as the first hints of the upcoming Civil War began to rage, the white population of Windsor was 113, with lawyers, doctors, a shoemaker, confectioner, mechanic, tailor and painter. By 1860, the overall population had increased to 384, which included 170 whites, 28 free blacks and 186 slaves. Professions in 1860 included coachmakers, merchants, doctors, seamstresses, lawyers, and cabinetmakers. At this time the Bertie area's largest crop was cotton which supported large plantations. Only 4 other counties in the state produced more cotton than Bertie at this time. There were 25 plantations with at least 1000 acres and there were 35 slaveholders who owned 50 or more slaves apiece. These two figures made Bertie and Windsor one of the wealthiest areas in the state prior to the Civil War.
Windsor was spared most of the ravages the came to the South with the Civil War. After the fall of Roanoke Island, the federal forces occupied the entire Sound region and held much of it throughout the war. Episcopal Bishop Atkinson was only able to visit Windsor once between 1860 and 1865, as it was held by northern troops. His journal shows a report from Reverand Cyrus Waters in 1863 stating that he had not been disturbed in the dishcarge of his duty by the enemy and that the Church had given freely of its belongings for the war effort.
There was sympathy to be found for both sides during the occupation, and a certain amount of trade was conducted with the northern forces. The many excursions of the northern gunboats from Plymouth up the river to Windsor brought fire from partisans in the area. Two such encounters took place at the County Farm Landing and at the Hoggard Mill Bridge. Windsor served up her sons to fight on the battlefields across the South and suffered at home as did many other rural area. High prices, scarce commodities and lack of some necessities were prevalent. The end of the war left the area land poor and depressed.
