Early history The original inhabitants of the region eventually constituting Hoke County were
Tuscarora Native Americans. Ancestors of the
Lumbee Native Americans lived in the area in the early 1700s. European settlers began establishing church congregations in the area in the mid-to-late 1700s. The area was later placed under the jurisdiction of
Cumberland and
Robeson counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. In 1911 a third attempt was made and conjoined with an effort to name a county in honor of
Robert F. Hoke, a
Confederate general in the
American Civil War and railroad executive. On February 14, 1911, the
North Carolina General Assembly voted to create the new Hoke County effective April 1 of that year, with its first government to be appointed by the
governor of North Carolina pending the holding of an election. Raeford was designated the
county seat, leaving about 150,000 acres leftover. Over 160 Hoke residents served in the armed forces during
World War II. After the war, the county's Lumbee population increased. An effort by the
U.S. Army to acquire a further 49,000 acres in the county in 1952 for Fort Bragg was abandoned after intense lobbying by local residents. In 1958, Little River Township, a section of north Hoke which was cut off from the rest of the county due to the presence of the Fort Bragg Military Reservation, was moved into the jurisdiction of
Moore County. Public schools, which had been originally racially segregated for whites, blacks, and Native Americans, were integrated in the 1960s. ==Geography==