Chinquapin, North Carolina
| Chinquapin, North Carolina | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Chinquapin
|
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| Coordinates: 34°49′52″N 77°48′59″W / 34.83111°N 77.81639°WCoordinates: 34°49′52″N 77°48′59″W / 34.83111°N 77.81639°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | North Carolina |
| County | Duplin |
| Elevation | 39 ft (12 m) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 28521 |
| Area code(s) | 910 |
| FIPS code | 37-12520 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1019667 |
Chinquapin is an unincorporated community located adjacent to the Northeast Cape Fear River in Duplin County, North Carolina.
The roots of Chinquapin, North Carolina lie largely with the Thigpen family, who migrated to the area from Perquimans Precinct in the 1730s. James Thigpen, the first of the Duplin County Thigpens, obtained a patent for land bordering the Northeast Cape Fear River, establishing a plantation he called “Chinquapen Orchard.” James and his kin named many of the creeks around their new home after those in Perquimans – Cypress Creek, Muddy Creek, even Chinquapin itself. An Algonquian word, chinquapin, or "chinkapin," is a diminutive cousin of the American chestnut that is abundant along creeks and rivers of the Southeastern United States. According to Bible records, James Thigpen died at Chinquapen Orchard in 1737. His son, Dr. James Thigpen IV, purchased the land from his mother (she had remarried) for his son Job, holding it in trust until he reached maturity. When Job and his wife Annie began running the plantation in 1754, they dropped the latter part of the name, simply calling their home Chinquapin.
During this period significant numbers of Scotch-Irish immigrants began arriving to the Cape Fear region, settling on land purchased from a London merchant named Henry McCulloch, who had obtained 71,160 acres along the river from the British Crown. There was extensive mingling between these newer inhabitants and those inhabitants who had been in the area for some time, such as the Thigpens, as marriage records substantiate.
In 1780 Chinquapin was burned by Tories, likely in retaliation for Job’s service in the N.C. militia. As Job did not survive the war, it was left to his eldest son, Joab, to rebuild the plantation. Chinquapin has always been a predominantly agrarian community focused around the cultivation of corn and (to a lesser extent now) tobacco. Raising livestock and harvesting timber/naval stores has also been an essential component of the local economy for centuries. Before the railroad, the only feasible method for these commodities to reach the market (namely that of Wilmington) was via river. Ideally located near the N.E. Cape Fear, Chinquapin was oftentimes the port of departure for produce in eastern Duplin County, especially at times of low water levels when sites further upriver were not accessible. Throughout the early 19th century, the plantation at Chinquapin grew from a homestead with a handful of slaves to a community of several dozen people.
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