NC Gazetteer

Blakely

A former community
… former town in NW Northampton County on the E side of Roanoke River. Inc. 1832-33. To be laid off on 200 acres of land owned by John D. Amis. Named for Johnston Blakely (1781-1814), a naval hero of the War of 1812. Was terminal point in 1833 of the Petersburg Railroad, the first railroad in North Carolina. Town declined as Weldon, just across the river in Halifax County, flourished.