page_title: Roxboro, North Carolina
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Roxboro, North Carolina / History
caption_attribution_description: A restaurant in Roxboro, North Carolina has all these old gas pumps spread around its parking lot.
context_page_description: Roxboro is a city and the county seat of Person County, North Carolina in the United States. The population was 8,362 at the 2010 census. The city is 30 miles north of Durham and is a part of the four-county Durham–Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 504,357 as of the 2010 Census. The Durham–Chapel Hill MSA is a part of the larger Raleigh–Durham–Cary Combined Statistical Area, which has a population of 1,749,525 as of the 2010 Census.
context_section_description: Roxboro is named after a town in Scotland, Roxburgh. Although spelled differently, they are pronounced the same. Prior to the official adoption of the name Roxboro, the community was known as "Mocassin Gap". The city of Roxboro was incorporated on January 9, 1855 and remains the only municipality in Person County.
  The Holloway-Jones-Day House, House on Wagstaff Farm, James A. and Laura Thompson Long House, Merritt-Winstead House, Person County Courthouse, Roxboro Commercial Historic District, Roxboro Cotton Mill, and Roxboro Male Academy and Methodist Parsonage are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  On July 7, 1920, Red Roach was lynched in downtown Roxboro.
  On August 15, 1941, a mob of 500 attempted to lynch Cy Winstead, a 22 year old black man, who was accused of raping a white woman and was being held at the Person county court house. The mob was held off with tear gas by local authorities led by Sheriff M. T. Clayton until Winstead could be safely transferred to the state prison in Raleigh, NC. No injuries were reported.  Ten men were indicted for the attempted lynching on October 16, 1941 on misdemeanor charges for "unlawful assembly for unlawful purpose".
caption: Old pumps at Stuart's Family Grill – "Dog House"
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