Biography

Virginia-born William Lenoir moved with his family to a plantation outside Tarboro at age 8. His father died six years later, and William was mostly self-educated, teaching himself business with a math textbook.[1] Lenoir taught for a few years before learning surveying. In 1775 he moved his wife and two enslaved women to Mulberry Fields (now Wilkesboro). Lenoir became clerk of the county “Committee of Safety,” essentially its new Patriot government. He first served in the Surry County militia the next year, as a lieu