Lincolnton is a city in Lincoln County, North Carolina, United States within the Charlotte metropolitan area.

The new city and the county were named for Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

[7] The Piedmont area was developed for industry, based on using the water power from the streams and rivers there.

With the advantage of the South Fork of the Catawba, Lincolnton was the site of the first textile mill in North Carolina, constructed by Michael Schenck in 1813.

[10] During the American Civil War, Lincoln County had many residents who either joined or were conscripted to the Confederate Army.

Among them was Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia in the final year of the war.

Episcopal missionary bishop Henry C. Lay spent the final months of the Civil War in the town.

Union forces occupied Lincoln County on Easter Monday, 1865, shortly before the close of the war.

[10] As county seat and a center of the textile industry, city residents prospered on the returns from cotton cultivation.

The city has numerous properties, including churches, which have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since the late 20th century.

There was much activity around the Lincoln County Courthouse on court days, when farmers typically came to town to trade and sell their goods.

[citation needed] The city electorate narrowly backed Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

[15] Lincolnton is home to one print newspaper and one radio station as well as a range of online news sites and blogs.

Based in historic downtown Lincolnton, the family-owned newspaper covers all of Lincoln County, for which it is the legal paper of record.

WLON radio went on the air in the late 1950s or early 1960s and provides coverage of Lincolnton High School football every Friday night, as well as Atlanta Braves, NC State Wolfpack, and UNC Tar Heels sports events.