Mount Olive History

Mount Olive owes its birth to the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, which was completed in 1840. Land for the railroad was purchased from Adam Winn, the head of a prominent free black family who had extensive land holdings in the area at the time. The first part of the railroad right of way is believed to be the present Center Street of Mount Olive. The railroad opened a depot in the vicinity, and by 1853 a post office had been added. A Canadian named William Pollock teamed up with Benjamin Oliver of nearby Duplin County to build a store there.

Oliver's son-in-law, Dr. Gideon Monroe Roberts, however, is considered the town's founder. He bought land around the depot, and in 1854 conveyed four acres of it to five others including Oliver, and they laid out a town. Oliver, the son of a Baptist minister, supposedly came up with the town's name. By the time it was formally incorporated in 1870, Mount Olive was already a thriving little village. Today, it serves as a small commercial center for the mostly rural southern Wayne and northern Duplin counties.