History:

The Town of Mt. Gilead began as the Providence settlement. This settlement  was named by the leaders of the First Methodist Church. In 1855, the community's name was changed to Mt. Gilead, and in 1898 the Town was incorporated by the North Carolina General Assembly. From its inception through the 1930's, cotton was the biggest cash crop in Mt. Gilead. In the 1930's, as cotton farming waned in its importance, the textile industry emerged as the focal point of the local economy. Textiles dominated the localeconomic picture through the mid 1990's. Today in the abandoned cotton fields there springs forth another source of wealth for the Town: pine trees. This area has no shortage of timber, and the lumber industry has never been more important to the local economy than it is today.