Some earlier information on county residents may be found in various statewide business directories that were published for North Carolina. Examples include:
- Thomson's Mercantile and Professional Directory 1851—1852.
- The Southern Business Directory and General Commercial Advertiser, Volume 1. The full text of the 1854 edition is available through Google Books.
- Branson & Farrar's North Carolina Business Directory for 1866-67. Available online at Documenting the American South.
- Branson's North Carolina Business Directory. Volumes for 1867/1868, 1869, 1890 and 1896 are in the Internet Archive: Ebook and Texts Archive.
- North Carolina Business Directory, 1872 ed. at Internet Archive: Ebook and Texts Archive.
- Branson's North Carolina Business Directory. The full text of the 1890, Vol. 7 edition is available through Google Books.
- North Carolina Year Book (and Business Directory). Digitized images of 1901 through 1916, 1922, and 1923 are available at the Internet Archive: Ebook and Texts Archive.
- North Carolina Industrial Directory, 1928. In the North Carolina Digital Collections
- Industrial Directory and Reference Book of the State of North Carolina, published by the N. C. Dept of Labor in 1938. In the North Carolina Digital Collections.
- North Carolina directory of manufacturing firms, published by the N. C. Dept of Labor, for 1928, 1938, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1954 Supplement, 1956, 1958 Supplement, 1960, 1962 Supplement, 1964, 1966 Supplement, 1968, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1993.
Lincolnton, N.C.
- Business Directory of the Town of Lincolnton, 8 November 1844. Bulletin of the Genealogical Society of Old Tryon County. Forest City, NC: Genealogical Society of Tryon County. p.99-100. 929.1 BUL NCC