County Wide

In a follow-up article to Chowan River Ramblings by Robert (Bob) Forbes, he wanted to share additional information concerning his interest in Native American artifacts in the Chowan River area.

He is asking for information concerning any found Native American artifacts in or around the Chowan River. If so, I’d like to see photos of the same, along with the location of the finding if you want to share that information, you can contact him at rhforbesjr@gmail.com. Here is a photo of some of the artifacts he has found on his family farm near the Tar River; the penny is for size reference.

Greetings, readers, from the western bank of the Chowan River in Bertie County! I’m pleased to be asked to contribute to the Edenton Gazette. I anticipate, expect, and hope that this is the first of a series of columns that will be largely about the deep history of human occupation along the banks of our beautiful Chowan River, interspersed with current news and observations from my vantage point along the mighty Chowan’s western shore.

As a resident of the Black Rock neighborhood just across the Edenhouse (aka “Highway 17”) Bridge in Bertie County, I realize that I am writing mostly to Chowan County readers from across the river. That is like admitting, especially to the Edenton residents among you, that I live “across the tracks,” but I hope you will not hold that against me, too much.

Also, I hope you’ll not hold against me that I’m a relatively new resident of the area, having moved here in February 2019 after my semi-retirement from an environmental engineering career based mostly in Charlotte, where I could conveniently fly to project sites around the country and overseas. I say “semi-retirement” because I still have an email address from my employer of some 40 years, and they occasionally ask me to do a little “work” on behalf of my company and profession. Even my Linked-In profile says that I am “ready to work, a little.”

After four years in semi-retirement, those “work” requests from my soon-to-be former employer are thankfully becoming fewer and farther between. This allows me to devote my time to more important tasks such as fishing, gardening, doing whatever my wife tells me, and hopefully, writing more about my lifelong interest in the history of eastern North Carolina, a subject on which I have some credibility. The only downside of retiring completely from my profession is that I may soon have to give up my company’s laptop computer and tech support, but is that not a small price to pay for freedom?

Back to my credibility concerning local history, I was born and raised on a Pitt County farm along the Tar River, about an hour’s drive from my current abode in Bertie County. That farm, part of which my brother and I still jointly own, was acquired by our great-great-great-great grandfather, John Forbes, around 1740 as part of a land grant from the Lord’s Proprietors of the Colony of North Carolina.

Research into the scant information I have found so far on my paternal ancestor, John Forbes, shows that he did government work for the Colony of North Carolina. He was officially the Colony’s Deputy Surveyor-General, right up until his untimely death in 1750. He also performed official duties as Clerk of Bath County for several years. His name shows up at the bottom of many colonial deeds in his capacity as land surveyor, and it appears on quite a few other documents in his capacity as County Clerk. His compensation for fulfilling those duties came not
in the form of money, but instead, in the form of land.

As I mentioned, my brother and I still own a small sliver of the land that was granted to our ancestor, John Forbes. That land is mostly in the Tar River floodplain, so putting any houses there would not be prudent or even permissible. But the deer, wild turkey, and wood ducks love the place, among other less desirable wildlife, such as snakes, deer flies, ticks, and swarms of mosquitoes in the warmer months of April through October.

I still like to walk around our land from November through March, but I must remember to wear orange in deference to the Sam Branch Hunt Club, which leases our land every hunting season, much to the chagrin of our deer-loving neighbors at the Ironwood Country Club. Too bad for them; the deer and their hunters were roaming our land way before those suburban neighbors moved in next door.

Based on a bit of circumstantial evidence, I believe that my colonial ancestor, John Forbes, may have grown up in North Carolina’s Albemarle County, which in the early 1700’s covered the so-called “finger counties” that have since been named Currituck, Camden, Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Chowan.

A man named John Forbes shows up as a witness to a will in Albemarle County in 1683, and I believe he may have been the father or grandfather of my confirmed ancestor, also named John Forbes, a civil servant to the Colony of North Carolina. That is as far into the past as I have managed to trace my ancestry so far, but I am still looking, and I plan to keep you posted on any significant findings along the way.

It is time to wrap up this opening chapter before I lose your attention, but not before I divulge my plans in general for what I hope to be a long series of columns. I plan to take us back to the times when the lands around the Chowan River were inhabited by Native Americans, followed by early European explorers, followed by colonial land grabbers and their laborers (many of whom, regretfully, were enslaved), followed in turn by all their descendants and other wanderers who worked, played, lived, and died in these parts.

They left some amazing stories, many of which have been largely forgotten along the way. My plan is to resurrect and retell some of those forgotten stories for you, dear reader. Please wish me luck and providence.

The small coastal town of Edenton, North Carolina, had always been a town that celebrated its rich history. The town’s colonial past is visible in its well-preserved colonial houses, the oldest operating courthouse in North Carolina, and the site where American Founding Father Joseph Hewes operated his mercantile store. But amidst this history, a problem exists – the once-grand Hotel Hinton.

The Hotel Hinton location had been a part of the town’s history since the 1750s when inns first appeared at this location. It had seen many ups and downs over the centuries. Still, it had always been a prominent feature of the town’s landscape. It even served as the County Government office building. However, as time passed, the hotel continued to descend into disrepair, becoming a public safety concern.

On Saturday, 26 February 2022, citizens gathered at the confederate statue located at the end of South Broad Street to protest what the group highlighted as a lack of progress and clarity over the timeline for the statues removal.

Rod Phillips of Edenton who organized the protest, highlighted that while the town council has made a decision to remove the statue, the decision lacked timing of the move and what the plan would be for the space once the statue was removed. He indicated that the protest would happen every Saturday until the statue is removed.

The Edenton Town Council will hold a Special Called Joint Electronic Meeting along with the Chowan
County Board of Commissioners & the Perquimans County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, April
21, 2021 at 4:00 pm.

The meeting will be held remotely hosted by WebEx. The Edenton Town Council will gather at the Town Council Chambers 504 South Broad Street, Edenton, the Chowan County Board of Commissioners will gather at the Chowan County Public Safety Center, 305 West Freemason St., Edenton. The Perquimans County Board of Commissioners will join individually.

The purpose of the remote/electronic meeting is to allow the three Boards to meet jointly and allow for proper social distancing due to COVID-19.

Seating will be available at the Chowan County and Town of Edenton locations and is limited. There is no public comment session for this meeting. The Special Called Joint Meeting is to receive a report on the Preliminary Regionalization Feasibility Study that looked at long-term Regional Water Supply and Treatment Options for Chowan County, Perquimans County, and the Town of Edenton and consider next steps.

Information to view the meeting electronically:
Join from the meeting link:
https://chowancounty.my.webex.com/chowancounty.my/j.php?MTID=m6d881e17e776f730a1dc52e01ca13933
Join by dialing in: 1-408-418-9388