A village existed in the vicinity of present-day Williamston as early as 1730, when settlers from Bertie County moved to the south side of the Morattock, now Roanoke, River near the ruins of an old Tuscarora Indian village. Known to Indians as Squhawky and to newcomers as Tar Landing, the settlement became a principal shipping point for tar, pitch, turpentine, other forest products, and meat. It prospered and became the county seat when Martin County was chartered in March 1774, then a little more than five years later, during the Revolutionary War, became the county's first incorporated town under the name Williamston in a charter granted by the General Assembly at Halifax during October and November 1779. Two traditions explain the name: one attributes it to a poor Irish weaver called Dick Williams who supposedly settled there around the middle of the eighteenth century and rose to wealth and influence, while the other holds that it honored Colonel William Williams, whose family was prominent in the county's early history. His father, also William Williams, came from Wales in the early 1700's, settled on the south bank of the Roanoke River, and his son William Williams II served as a delegate to the Hillsboro and Halifax conventions in 1776, became colonel of Martin County's militia, was elected the county's first state senator in 1777, and was succeeded in militia command by his nephew Lieutenant Colonel Whitmel Hill after resigning his commission. Williamston's growth was closely tied to its location on a navigable river and its role as county seat, which made it a center for shipping, legal business, court attendance, military musters, elections, and other public functions. Ships could reach Williamston before roads were developed, and later the railroad expanded commerce by rail and water; with the bridging of the river at the eastern edge of the city limits in 1922, the town became the hub of a system of major highways and roads important to the county's business and commercial life. Census figures generally showed steady population growth, from 248 in 1800 to 261 in 1860, with an unofficial report of 520 in 1870, 482 in 1880, 750 in 1890, 912 in 1900, 1,574 in 1910, 1,800 in 1920, 2,731 in 1930, 3,966 in 1940, 4,979 in 1950, 6,294 in 1960, and 6,570 in 1970. In the mid-1800's, the town's business district included Elder C. B. Hassell's three-story store at Main and Smithwick streets, the largest building in town, and the only brick building, occupied by John C. Lamb's general mercantile store. Other leading merchants in the 1860's included Ameleck Williams, Docton W. Bagley, Captain John Lanier, and W. H. Carstarphen. Merchants traveled by road, boat, steamer, and rail to buy goods in New York, while sailing vessels and steamboats carried in merchandise and returned north with shingles and naval stores; trade also extended to the West Indies in exchanges of salt and molasses for lumber, tar, pitch, and turpentine. Just before the Civil War the town had Episcopal and Methodist churches, while many residents who were Primitive Baptists worshipped at Skewarkey; Alfred Watson served the Episcopal church, the Reverend Mr. Chaffin the Methodist church, and Elder C. B. Hassell the Skewarkey Primitive Baptist Church. In 1860 Williamston also had two private schools, the Male Academy and the Female Academy, at a time when public schools were few.