Catawba Indians originally inhabited present-day Cabarrus County when significant numbers of Dutch, Scots-Irish, German, and Welsh-English families began traveling the Great Wagon Road to the North Carolina backcountry in the middle of the eighteenth century. After the county's formation in 1792, the location of the new county seat was fervently discussed and debated. To resolve the dispute, Stephen Cabarrus, the county's namesake, pleaded with citizens to set aside their differences and have concord. A site was then selected and named Concord, and its primary street was named Union to reflect the spirit in which the issue was settled. The town was established in February 1796 on a 26-acre tract lying on a ridge near the old Indian Trading Path and west of Three Mile Branch, and in 1837 it was incorporated with a total land area of one square mile.