Committee begins work to celebrate tricentennial

Volunteers from across Beaufort County are planning a series of celebrations to mark the tricentennial of the county’s founding in 1712.

With a kick-off event tentatively scheduled for March 2012, the 14-member group has a few months to plan what its members hope will be a year-long series of events in communities throughout the county that will not only salute Beaufort County’s history but benefit the local economy with an influx of tourists.

Celebrating the county’s 300th birthday is a way to “honor our past, raise awareness about the importance of Beaufort County in the history of the state, recognize the cultural diversity of the area and acknowledge the contributions of our ancestors,” said Penny Sermons.

Sermons, director of the Beaufort County Community College Learning Resources Center and the college’s distance-learning program, and Lynn Lewis, Washington’s tourism director, are co-chairwomen of the committee.

The celebration, while early in the planning stages, will be “a good opportunity to recognize the diversity of the county, the people who live here and the opportunities available to our residents,” Lewis said.

Sermons and Lewis were active in planning the 2005 tricentennial celebrations in Bath.

Others appointed to serve on the committee are Al Kutzing and Darnell Peed of Aurora, Claudia Alligood of Bath, Lloyd Ballance of Belhaven, Helen Eckman of Chocowinity, Wayland Whitley of Pantego, Keith Hackney of Washington, Bill Rianhard of Washington Park, Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Catherine Glover, Beaufort County Economic Development Director Tom Thompson and Beaufort County Commissioners Al Klemm and Jerry Langley.

“The committee is a good cross-section of people in the county who can bring a lot of ideas to the table,” Sermons said.

In 1696, Beaufort County was originally part of an area north of the Pamlico River named Bath — one of a few original jurisdictions in North Carolina. In 1705, Bath precinct was divided into Archdale, Pamptecough and Wickham precincts, becoming in 1712, Craven, Beaufort and Hyde counties, respectively, according to “The Formation of the North Carolina Counties” by David L. Corbitt.

The county was named for Henry Somerset, the second Duke of Beaufort, who became a Lord Proprietor of the colony in 1709 and served in that position until his death in 1714.

The Duke of Beaufort is a title in the Peerage of England created in 1682 for Henry Somerset, the third Marquess of Worcester. The name Beaufort refers to a castle in the Champagne region of France, now the village of Montmorency-Beaufort, and is the only current English dukedom to take its name from a place outside the British Isles, according to one history of British peerage.

“I anticipate that we’ll have a very good celebration because people in Beaufort County are active and they care about the community,” said Klemm in an interview.

The celebration will be “an opportunity to show off how wonderful the community is, bring in tourism dollars and, hopefully, help the economy,” Klemm said.

While planning is in the early stages, Sermons said, the committee will work to ensure that the county’s tricentennial is “a true countywide event.”

Besides planning events that are specific to the celebration, the committee hopes to be able to join forces with existing Beaufort County events — the Washington Summer Festival, Smoke on the Water, the Aurora Fossil Festival, the Fourth of July parade in Belhaven and BathFest — to highlight the centennial, Sermons said.

The committee hopes to fund the celebration through corporate donations and contributions from individuals instead of tapping taxpayer funds, Klemm said.

Committee members are scheduled to travel to Raleigh today to meet with representatives of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources to discuss plans for the observance.

The next meeting of the 300th Anniversary Committee is set for 3:30 p.m. Dec. 14 in the county commissioners’ meeting room at the Beaufort County Administrative Office on West Third Street in Washington.

The committee welcomes ideas from the public, Sermons said.

Interested persons may contact County Manager Randell Woodruff at 252-946-0079 or by email at randell.woodruff@co.beaufort.nc.us with comments or ideas for the committee to consider.