Monroe, North Carolina Monroe, North Carolina Monroe is a city in and the county seat of Union County, North Carolina, United States. The population increased from 26,228 in 2000 to 32,797 in 2010. It is within the rapidly growing Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC Metropolitan area. Monroe has a council-manager form of government. Monroe was founded as a planned settlement. In 1843, the first Board of County Commissioners, appointed by the General Assembly, selected an area in the center of the county as the county seat, and Monroe was incorporated that year. It was named for James Monroe, the country’s fifth president. It became a
James Monroe Smith James Monroe Smith James Monroe Smith Sr. (October 9, 1888 – June 6, 1949), was the president of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during the 1930s. He was imprisoned for forgery, embezzlement, mail fraud, and income tax evasion in what is known as the Louisiana Hayride of 1939. Smith was born near Jonesboro in rural Jackson Parish in north Louisiana to John Henry Smith and the former Mary Adney Sims. He was educated at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana and at LSU, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1921. He engaged in graduate studies