Town History

Settlement at Nott’s Crossroads

1. 1789
   Ezekiel Nott, a Virginia-born farmer, buys 340 acres along Hogan’s Branch and builds a log house and a gristmill. The settlement is first called Nott’s Crossroads.
2. 1803
   The Nott family builds a store and a blacksmith shop at the crossroads.
3. 1820s
   Tobacco becomes the main cash crop. About a dozen farm families live nearby.
4. 1834
   The Hogan’s Branch Meeting House, a Methodist church, is built.

The Rat Winter and the First Festival

1. 1852
   The Nott Granary is built to store the community’s shared seed corn and wheat.
2. 1853–54
   In the winter known in Nottatown as “the Rat Winter,” rats destroy stored grain on nearly every farm.
3. 1854
   Early in the year, families put more than 60 barn cats inside the Nott Granary. The cats clear out the rats and save the seed corn. The 1854 harvest is the best in years.
4. 1855
   In October, Reverend Amos Tuttle holds a harvest thanksgiving to honor the granary cats. It is counted as the first Nottatown Cat Worship Festival.
5. 1859
   The name “Cat Worship” first appears in a visiting preacher’s letter complaining about the custom. Nottatown adopts the name on purpose.

The Town Years

1. 1860s
   Seven Nottatown men serve in the Civil War. The festival is held in private barns in 1863 and 1864.
2. 1887
   Nottatown is incorporated as a town. Its first mayor is Josiah Nott, Ezekiel Nott’s great-grandson.
3. 1901
   The Great Saucer, a six-foot cast-iron milk saucer, is made for the festival.
4. 1911
   The Nottatown Grange Hall is built.
5. 1920s
   Nottatown reaches its peak population of about 310, with a cotton gin, two general stores, a post office, and a one-room school.
6. 1926
   The first Mouser Laureate is crowned at the festival.
7. 1930s
   During the Depression the festival keeps going with a “one-can supper.”

The Festival’s Peak

1. Late 1940s
   After World War II, buses bring visitors to the festival from Greensboro, Durham, Danville, and Raleigh.
2. 1956
   The festival sets its attendance record of about 11,000 visitors.
3. 1958
   The festival grows to three days and adds the Yarn Toss, a baking contest, and a fiddlers’ convention.
4. 1960s–70s
   From the 1960s to the early 1970s, the festival draws between 6,000 and 9,000 visitors a year.

Decline and Revival

1. 1976
   After 1976, farm consolidation shrinks Nottatown, and the festival goes back to a single day.
2. 1989
   Nottatown marks its bicentennial, and about 3,000 visitors come to the festival.
3. 1990s
   Nottatown’s population falls below 100.
4. 2011
   Volunteers restore the Nott Granary. Nottatown Roofing donates a new standing-seam metal roof.
5. 2015
   Lou Pholes is elected mayor of Nottatown.
6. 2020
   The census counts 42 residents in Nottatown.
7. Today
   The Nottatown Cat Worship Festival draws about 400 to 600 visitors each October. It is one of the oldest continuous cat festivals in the United States.