{"id":6502,"date":"2023-07-30T10:03:36","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T10:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=6502"},"modified":"2026-08-08T22:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:53:15","slug":"caswell-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/caswell-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Caswell County, North Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Caswell County is a county in North Carolina, United States, about 35 miles southwest of<br \/>\nGreensboro and 14 miles south of Danville, Virginia. It had a population of 22,736 at the 2020<br \/>\ncensus, an estimated 22,563 by 2025, and covers 428.71 square miles (1,110.4 km2) centred near<br \/>\n36\u00b023\u2032N 79\u00b020\u2032W.<\/p>\n<p>Yanceyville is the county seat and the county&#8217;s largest town; its postal code is 27379. The<br \/>\ncounty holds 2 incorporated towns and 10 unincorporated communities, and it runs on Eastern Time.<br \/>\nIts FIPS code is 37033.<\/p>\n<h2>Towns &amp; Villages in Caswell County<\/h2>\n<p>Caswell County has 12 named places on record: 2 incorporated towns and 10 unincorporated<br \/>\ncommunities with no local government of their own. Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural<br \/>\ncommunities with no formal boundary.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tv-table-scroll\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Place<\/th>\n<th>Type<\/th>\n<th>Pop.<\/th>\n<th>ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Yanceyville<\/td>\n<td>Town &middot; seat<\/td>\n<td>1,937<\/td>\n<td>27379<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Pelham<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>27311<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Prospect Hill<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>27314<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Providence<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>27315<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Leasburg<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>27291<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Blanch<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>27212<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Milton<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>155<\/td>\n<td>27305<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Semora<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Casville<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cherry Grove<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Camp Springs<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Purley<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Leasburg was Caswell County&#8217;s first incorporated town, chartered in 1788 around an early<br \/>\ncourthouse site, but it later gave up its town government and is unincorporated today. Milton,<br \/>\nthe county&#8217;s second and only other incorporated town, sits far to the east on the Dan River and<br \/>\nhas never grown much past its early-1800s footprint.<\/p>\n<h2>ZIP Codes<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>27379 &mdash; Yanceyville<\/li>\n<li>27311 &mdash; Pelham<\/li>\n<li>27314 &mdash; Prospect Hill<\/li>\n<li>27315 &mdash; Providence<\/li>\n<li>27291 &mdash; Leasburg<\/li>\n<li>27212 &mdash; Blanch<\/li>\n<li>27305 &mdash; Milton<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Semora, Casville, Cherry Grove, Camp Springs and Purley have no post office and no ZIP code of<br \/>\ntheir own; mail there is delivered under the nearest listed town&#8217;s code.<\/p>\n<h2>Geography<\/h2>\n<p>Caswell County sits in North Carolina&#8217;s north-central Piedmont, a belt of rolling hills between<br \/>\nthe mountains and the coastal plain, running right up to the Virginia line. Of its 428.71 square<br \/>\nmiles, 425.37 are land and 3.34 are water, under 1 percent &mdash; the county has no large natural<br \/>\nlake. The Dan River crosses the county&#8217;s northeast corner near Milton and forms part of the<br \/>\nboundary with Virginia&#8217;s Pittsylvania County, while Hyco Lake, a reservoir built for cooling water<br \/>\nat a power plant, draws boaters and anglers from the county&#8217;s east side.<\/p>\n<p>Rockingham County lies to the west, Alamance County to the south, Orange County to the<br \/>\nsoutheast and Person County to the east. Pittsylvania County and Halifax County, both in Virginia,<br \/>\nborder Caswell to the north. <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/rockingham-county-north-carolina\/\">Rockingham<br \/>\nCounty<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/alamance-county\/\">Alamance County<\/a>, <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/orange-county-north-carolina\/\">Orange County<\/a> and <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/person-county\/\">Person County<\/a> all have their own pages on<br \/>\nthis site; the two Virginia counties do not.<\/p>\n<h2>Demographics<\/h2>\n<p>Caswell County had a population of 22,736 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the<br \/>\ncounty near 22,563 residents, a slight decline. Yanceyville, with 1,937 people, is by far the<br \/>\ncounty&#8217;s largest place; Milton, the only other incorporated town, has just 155. Median household<br \/>\nincome runs $59,755 (2024 DataUSA estimate), well below North Carolina&#8217;s statewide figure of<br \/>\n$70,804 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to roughly 53 people per square mile of land,<br \/>\nlow even for a rural Piedmont county, and the population has been essentially flat to slightly<br \/>\nfalling for two decades as the tobacco economy that once supported far more farm families has<br \/>\nshrunk.<\/p>\n<h2>Economy &amp; Local Life<\/h2>\n<p>Manufacturing employs the most workers in the county, about 1,566 people, followed by health<br \/>\ncare and social assistance at 1,390 and retail trade at 1,212. Agriculture, once dominated by<br \/>\nflue-cured tobacco, has declined sharply but still shapes the county&#8217;s rural character. Riverside<br \/>\nFurniture Corporation opened a distribution center in the county in 2020, adding about 50 jobs,<br \/>\nand a Cherokee Tobacco processing facility announced in 2024 brought a further $14 million<br \/>\ninvestment and 39 jobs. Caswell County Schools and two state correctional facilities &mdash; the<br \/>\nDan River Prison Work Farm and Caswell Correctional Center &mdash; are also major employers.<br \/>\nPiedmont Community College operates a branch campus in Yanceyville, open since 1988, and a<br \/>\nseparate agribusiness training center in Pelham.<\/p>\n<h2>History<\/h2>\n<p>North Carolina&#8217;s General Assembly formed Caswell County on 1 June 1777, carving it out of<br \/>\nOrange County. It was named for Richard Caswell, North Carolina&#8217;s first state governor. Yanceyville,<br \/>\noriginally called Caswell Court House, was renamed in 1833.<\/p>\n<p>In 1781, during the run-up to the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, British General Lord<br \/>\nCornwallis chased American General Nathanael Greene&#8217;s army through the county in what became known<br \/>\nas the Race to the Dan &mdash; Greene&#8217;s retreat drew Cornwallis far from his South Carolina supply<br \/>\nlines, weakening him ahead of the eventual British defeat at Yorktown. Cornwallis&#8217;s troops passed<br \/>\nthrough Camp Springs and Leasburg and on toward Red House Church near Semora.<\/p>\n<p>In 1839, an enslaved man known as Stephen, working on Abisha Slade&#8217;s farm at Purley, discovered<br \/>\nthe flue-curing process that produces bright leaf tobacco. Slade refined the method through the<br \/>\n1850s; by 1857 his farm was harvesting 20,000 pounds of bright leaf on 100 acres and selling it in<br \/>\nLynchburg, Virginia, at prices far above ordinary tobacco. The technique spread to neighboring<br \/>\nfarms and helped make North Carolina the country&#8217;s dominant tobacco-growing state for the next<br \/>\ncentury.<\/p>\n<p>During Reconstruction, the county was the site of one of North Carolina&#8217;s most notorious<br \/>\npolitical killings. On 21 May 1870, Klansmen assassinated John W. Stephens, a Republican state<br \/>\nsenator, inside the Yanceyville courthouse, stabbing and strangling him in a vacant courtroom after<br \/>\nthe county sheriff &mdash; secretly a Klan member &mdash; lured him there. The killing went<br \/>\nuninvestigated for years and remains one of the best-documented Klan murders of the era.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting There<\/h2>\n<p>No interstate crosses Caswell County. US 158 runs east&ndash;west through Yanceyville, linking<br \/>\nReidsville to Roxboro and Oxford, and NC 86 runs north&ndash;south through Yanceyville, connecting<br \/>\nChapel Hill and Hillsborough to the Virginia line at Danville.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Danville, Virginia &mdash; about 14 miles north<\/li>\n<li>Greensboro &mdash; about 35 miles southwest<\/li>\n<li>Burlington &mdash; about 22 miles south<\/li>\n<li>Roxboro &mdash; about 19 miles east<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Piedmont Triad International Airport, near Greensboro, is the nearest major commercial<br \/>\nairport, roughly 40 miles from Yanceyville. The nearest Amtrak station is in Burlington, served by<br \/>\nthe Carolinian and Piedmont trains toward Charlotte, Raleigh and New York.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Where is Caswell County located?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt sits in North Carolina&#8217;s north-central Piedmont on the Virginia line, about 35 miles southwest<br \/>\nof Greensboro and 14 miles south of Danville, Virginia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the population of Caswell County?<\/strong><br \/>\n22,736 at the 2020 census, with an estimate near 22,563 by 2025.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How big is Caswell County?<\/strong><br \/>\n428.71 square miles (1,110.4 km2), of which 425.37 square miles are land.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the county seat of Caswell County?<\/strong><br \/>\nYanceyville, renamed from Caswell Court House in 1833, is the county seat and largest town.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many towns are in Caswell County?<\/strong><br \/>\nTwo incorporated towns &mdash; Yanceyville and Milton &mdash; plus ten unincorporated<br \/>\ncommunities: Pelham, Prospect Hill, Providence, Leasburg, Blanch, Semora, Casville, Cherry Grove,<br \/>\nCamp Springs and Purley.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What ZIP codes does Caswell County use?<\/strong><br \/>\n27379 for Yanceyville, 27305 for Milton, and 27311, 27314, 27315, 27291 and 27212 for Pelham,<br \/>\nProspect Hill, Providence, Leasburg and Blanch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Caswell County known for?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe 1839 discovery of the bright leaf tobacco curing process on Abisha Slade&#8217;s farm at Purley,<br \/>\nand the 1870 Reconstruction-era assassination of state senator John W. Stephens in the Yanceyville<br \/>\ncourthouse.<\/p>\n<p>More counties in this state: <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/category\/north-carolina\/\">Towns and villages in North Carolina<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caswell County is a county in North Carolina, United States, about 35 miles southwest of Greensboro and 14 miles south of Danville, Virginia. It had a population of 22,736 at the 2020 census, an estimated 22,563 by 2025, and covers 428.71 square miles (1,110.4 km2) centred near 36\u00b023\u2032N 79\u00b020\u2032W. Yanceyville is the county seat and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Towns & Villages in Caswell County, North Carolina","_seopress_titles_desc":"All 12 towns and communities in Caswell County, North Carolina - type, population and ZIP for each, plus Yanceyville's Klan-murder history.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-6502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-north-carolina","tag-towns-and-cities","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9580,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502\/revisions\/9580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}