Local figure
Leonidas Polk attended the University of North Carolina from 1821 to 1823 before entering West Point. Consecrated bishop of Louisiana in 1841, he enslaved more than 400 people on his Leighton plantation there, became a Confederate lieutenant general, and was killed at Pine Mountain in June 1864.
Source: NCpedia: Polk, Leonidas (Nathaniel C. Hughes Jr., revised 2022)
1806–1864 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗
2 works about Leonidas Polk are indexed here.
Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 2 dated events in the chronology →
Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.
Works about or by Leonidas Polk. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.
Papers of the Denmark family, 1861 to 1966, gathered by Leonidas Polk Denmark (1892 to 1964), grandson of the farm leader Colonel Leonidas Lafayette Polk (1837 to 1892). They cover Polk's agricultural journalism, the Farmers' Alliance and Populist politics, the Civil War, World War I and the 1918 influenza. Hillsborough appears among the places.
Included because: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Polk, Leonidas, 1806-1864.
Papers of the Pollock and Devereux families, 1712 to 1892, among the largest landowners and enslavers in antebellum North Carolina. The small lot includes Pollock papers from before and after the two families joined, plantation and farm management papers, lists of enslaved people, and Confederate supply and quartermaster material. Orange County enters through the Haw Fields.
Included because: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Polk, Leonidas, 1806-1864.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.
Sources and research tools for this person. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further. Research guide: Trace a family through historical records.
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Catalog searches use the Library of Congress name heading: Polk, Leonidas, 1806-1864. Historical-record searches use the person’s name and may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.
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