TOWNS
Scotland County administrative offices are located at 507 West Covington Street, Laurinburg, NC 28352; phone: 910-277-2406.
Scotland County was organized in 1841, from Clark, Lewis, and Shelby counties and named for Scotland.
The earliest settlers in the region now known as Scotland County were largely composed of Highland Scottish emigrants from Skye, Argyleshire, Islay, Coil, and other western isles of Scotland. Many of the Highlanders were living here as early as 1729 at the time of the separation of the province into North and South Carolina. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, English and lowland Scots and a small number of Welsh came by way of the Pee Dee River; and somewhat later, great numbers of Scotch-Irish from Ulster settled near the headwaters of the Cape Fear and Pee Dee Rivers. [1]
The population of Scotland County today is largely made up of descendants of this early stock. A large percentage of African Americans also make up the population, many of them descended from the early slaves brought into this country to tend the large cotton plantations. When the county was formed in 1899, the total population was 12,553. The 1940 census reported the population to have grown to 23,232, while the latest figures put the population at approximately 35,000.