Todd, North Carolina

Todd is an unincorporated community straddling the county lines of Watauga and Ashe counties in northwestern North Carolina on the South Fork of the New River. It lies at an elevation of 2,992 feet (912 m). The population was 2,141 at the 2010 United States Census.The community, originally called Elk Cross Roads, was settled in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The community was a rural outpost in the backcountry of the Blue Ridge Mountains populated by farmers. The first church, South Fork Baptist Church, was established in 1833, and a Post Office was established in 1837. Blackburn's Chapel, a Methodist church, was founded at Elk Cross Roads in 1850. The community was large enough to be noted on North Carolina maps by the 1850s. Several dry goods stores were operating at Elk Cross Roads before the Civil War.During the latter half of the 19th century, the community's commerce grew with large scale timber harvesting and also mining of mica and copper. By the 1890s, Todd was larger than the nearby town of Boone in Watauga County.In 1894, the Post Office was formally renamed Todd in honor of Joseph Warren Todd, a native son, who was a Civil War veteran and credited with restoring order and thwarting bushwackers in Watauga and Ashe counties immediately after the Civil War. His brother, James, was shot in the back and killed by bushwackers near Todd. Col. Todd practiced law in nearby Jefferson following the war until his death in 1909. He also served several terms in the North Carolina General Assembly.