On May 29, 1893, 29 Waldensian settlers from the Cottian Alps of Italy arrived at a clearing in Burke County North Carolina to establish a new colony. Virtually penniless and with few possessions they set out to establish a settlement and begin farming on forested land which they had purchased from the Morganton Land Transfer Company with the intention of using the harvested timber off the land to repay the purchase price.
In November of that same year, they were followed by an additional 100 plus settlers. Unable to raise enough crops to sustain them through the next several years, the settlers were dependent upon neighbors and the Presbytery of Concord to provide adequate food and clothing and provisions to survive that first decade.
Their efforts to organize themselves and establish a sawmill to repay the debt on the land resulted in failure, but slowly over the next twenty years they built an economy around textile mills and a bakery and, by the time of the Great Depression, were a thriving community that attracted workers from the surrounding region.
Today, Valdese is a flourishing community centered around the Waldensian Presbyterian Church, and its members remain civic leaders in the community.