There has always been a close association between this area and North Carolina. 

Most settlers who moved into what became, in 1819, the state of Alabama had originally lived in North Carolina. The following items relate to both positive and negative aspects of this area and the Tarheel State.

• 1829—Parker Rand was born at La Grange, Colbert County, in October. He was the son of John and Martha Curtis Rand, who were natives of North Carolina, specifically Wake County. His parents moved to La Grange in 1826 and purchased two farms: one in Lawrence, adjacent to Morgan County, and the other in Franklin County. They reared a family consisting of four sons and five daughters. 
• 1830—Dr. B. R. King was born near Leighton. Like so many others, his parents had come to Alabama from North Carolina. They reared a family of 11 children. The parents were Oswald and Martha DeLeon King.
• 1832—Samuel Livingston was a soldier of the American Revolution who, after the war, settled in Morgan County. He had entered the Revolutionary War as a private in the North Carolina militia. In 1832, at age 76, he began receiving the pension he had fully earned. It was a pittance even by contemporary standards, amounting to an annual payment of $21.67. 
• 1835—Dabney A. Burleson, Hartselle, was born near Decatur Feb. 15. His grandfather, John Burleson, was a pioneer from North Carolina who settled at the Spring at Huntsville in 1817 and helped expel the Indians from the country. He died in Lawrence County. His brother Joe was a captain in the Indian wars.
• Dec. 12, 1891—Rev. John Turrentine, one of the oldest landmarks of north Alabama, passed quietly away at his home at Athens last night at 10 o’clock. He was born in Hillsboro, North Carolina, May 15, 1811. The family removed to Morgan County in 1820. Mr. Turrentine initially lived in Lawrence County and came to Athens in 1844. His first wife was Susan Ann Stevens, to whom he was married in Lawrence County in May 1837.His second marriage was to Melvina Frances Higgins in Limestone County, and she died July 16, 1884.
• March 23, 1909—A desperate fight took place today at the New Decatur depot between Policeman Will Davidson and Louisville and Nashville trainmen on one side and two strangers claiming to be from North Carolina on the other. In the fight Joe McIntire, one of the strangers, was shot in the head, but the wound is not serious. Jim McIntire, who claims to be Joe’s brother, was badly beaten on the head. Officer Davidson discovered Jim McIntire hiding on the water tank of the engine and placed him under arrest. His brother, Joe, appeared and gave the officer fight. Trainmen aided the officer. Both the McIntires were armed with revolvers but were unable to use them. Jim McIntire was arrested and locked up. In the lining of his coat, a burglar’s saw was found. Joe escaped to Athens, where he was arrested on advice from officers and brought back. On the train, the men had a complete camping outfit. They claim to be lumbermen with North Carolina as their home. Papers found on them show they have been all over the United States within the past few months. Joe had a railroad ticket to Seattle, Wash., but Jim had no ticket and admitted he was beating his way. The men are bad-looking characters, and the officers believe that they are noted crooks. 
• Nov. 24, 1927—J. A. Rountree, director general of the United States Good Roads Association, of the Bankhead National Highway Association, and founding editor of the Enquirer has received an invitation from the governor of Virginia and the state highway commission to be present at the celebration of the completion of the Virginia state highway, which is known as the Bankhead Highway (after Alabama’s late Senator John Hollis Bankhead, the “father of good roads” in America), connecting Washington D.C. and North Carolina, at noon Saturday at Southhill, Virginia.
• Aug. 10, 1944—Buford Kracke, one of Hartselle’s most active young women and an exceptional faculty member at the elementary school, has now completed a special course at Duke University in North Carolina and is at home with her mother, Mrs. Carrie Kracke.
• Sept. 12, 1956—Mary Orr, popular MCHS student, went to North Carolina to get Smokies in her eyes.