Here at North Carolina Miscellany, we’re always looking for interesting items dealing with North Carolina history and culture. In searching through Faris Jane Corey’s North Carolina Firsts, I found one that I knew but didn’t know. Our fair capital city, named for Sir Walter Raleigh, is the “only state capital in the nation named in honor of a man who was beheaded.”
I have to say that I think Ms. Corey is correct. Can any Miscellany readers think of another one in the U.S.? In the world?
Marietta, Ohio was named for Queen Marie Antoinette, who shared Raleigh’s ill fate. Though not a state capital, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica it was the first capital of the Northwest Territory.
Some ancient sources say that Paul of Tarsus was beheaded, making St. Paul, Minnesota another state capital like that, but no one really knows for sure.
Another interesting tidbit for history buffs. The Hayes Barton neighborhood takes its name from Sir Walter Raleigh’s birthplace.