Let’s get to know Chowan: ‘Cradle of N.C.’

Perquimans County’s western neighbor on the Albemarle Sound is Chowan County, N.C., which takes its name from the Chowanoc Native American tribe that inhabited lands around the Chowan River (pronounced cho-WONN). 

Chowan County is fondly known in North Carolina as the “Cradle of the Colony.”

Edenton, the Chowan County seat, was settled in 1712 and chartered in 1715. Within North Carolina, it appears that only the communities of Bath, New Bern and Beaufort are older.

Edenton is named after North Carolina’s second colonial governor, Charles Eden, who served from 1714 until his death in 1722. Edenton was the capital of the North Carolina colony from 1722-43.

 

Historian J.D. Lewis Jr. said: “From its very beginning to the time when freedom from England was finally achieved, Edenton was a hot-bed and center of continuous revolt and resistance to the Crown.” 

A perfect example is the famous “Edenton Tea Party” in 1774, when Penelope Barker and Elizabeth King formed an alliance of 50 local women to protest against “taxation without representation” by boycotting British tea and fabrics coming into North Carolina.

 

Penelope Barker

Historian Dr. Benjamin F. Speller Jr. said the “women drew up resolves, stating: ‘We, the Ladies of Edenton, do hereby solemnly engage not to conform to the pernicious custom of drinking tea,’ and we ‘will not wear any (garment made of cloth manufactured in England) until such time that all acts which tend to enslave our native country shall be repealed.”

 

One journalist wrote: “There are but few places in America that possess so much female artillery as Edenton.” 

The bronze Edenton Teapot Commemorative Sculpture was unveiled in 1905, created by Frank Baldwin, a foundry man from Watertown, Conn. The teapot is also featured prominently in the Visit Edenton logo.

 

Geographically, Chowan County is bounded on the south by the Albemarle Sound and to the west by the Chowan River. It is one of seven counties that has been “attached” to Carteret County to form the state’s Senate District 1. 

Chowan’s population of about 13,384 is just a tad more than that of Perquimans County, which has about 12,870 people. 

North Carolina Senate District 1 is a strange configuration where part of The Outer Banks meets a portion of the “inner banks” region. All communities in the district are heavily dependent on the various forms of tourism, and as they say…a “rising tide lifts all boats.”

 

Today, the Roanoke River Lighthouse is a major Edenton attraction. How it got there is an interesting story. 

Built in 1886 near the mouth of the Roanoke River in the Albemarle Sound, the lighthouse was abandoned in 1941. It was just “sitting out there” off the coast of Washington County in Batchelor Bay – uncared for and unloved. 

Emmett Hofler Wiggins, an experienced waterman and a savvy engineer, salvaged the structure in 1955 and “floated it over to Edenton in Chowan County.” Wiggins was hailed as a local hero for saving the structure from drowning in the sound. 

The lighthouse became Wiggins’ permanent home. After he died in 1995, the Edenton Historical Commission came up with the funds to purchase the lighthouse in 2007. 

In 2009, the State of North Carolina provided $1.2 million to restore the lighthouse and relocate it to the town harbor. The refurbished lighthouse opened to the public in 2014.

 

Forbes magazine featured Edenton in 2011 as one of America’s “Prettiest Small Towns” and paid tribute to the many “well-preserved colonial- and plantation-era homes” still standing within the community.