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Editor’s Note: In recognition of Black History Month, Clark Curtis will be taking a closer look at some of the people, places, and events that have helped mold the story of Washington’ s wealth of history and her interesting people.

Over the past several years, Stephen Farrell, curator of special collections at the Brown Library, and a host of volunteers have combed through thousands of original documents from the Morton and Fowle family collections. It’s almost like searching for gold, as they never know exactly what they might find.

Such was the case when they came across what appeared to be a letter signed by Washingtonian David Thomas Tayloe, the patriarch of the Tayloe Family.

“As it turns out, this was not a letter but a document dated May 13, 1865, and signed by Tayloe, who was identified as the secretary,” said Farrell. “It came from the vicinity of Townsville, North Carolina, which would have been in Granville County at the time. As we began deciphering what we had, we realized this was a document put together by an emancipation committee in Townsville, which was resolving to comply with the orders given at the end of the Civil War by the commanders of the Federal troops in North Carolina. In essence, they were giving their assurances in writing three days after the war had ended that they would comply with the emancipation of the enslaved.”

This led to the next question: why was Tayloe in Townsville? “We knew Tayloe had stolen the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse lens and fled to his property inland where he would hide it from the Federal troops and remain in exile,”  said Farrell. “I got to thinking that perhaps this property was located in or near Townsville. After doing some genealogy work, I found that the son of David Thomas Tayloe, was born in the vicinity of Townsville in 1864, which placed Tayloe in the area at the time of the creation and signing of this historic document.”

Farrell added that the document is of historical significance on many levels. “It simply is an amazing, all-encompassing, one-of-a-kind document,” said Farrell. “This is the first time that I have ever heard of a town in North Carolina creating a signed emancipation proclamation,” said Farrell. “It not only dealt with the Civil War but the post-war reconstruction and African American and American history that occurred in our state. The fact that a man from Washington was one of the founding members of the emancipation committee and signed the document that was created only three days after the end of the war is something we should all be proud of. It is a very special find, a real gem.”

Farrell said digital copies of the document have been made and will be on display at the Townsville Post Office and the Perry Memorial Library in nearby Henderson, North Carolina.