PANTEGO — The farming lifestyle in Beaufort County and the Pantego community in general were celebrated Saturday during the fifth annual Fall Days & Farm Ways Festival.

The event was hosted by the Pantego Academy Historical Museum.

“We do this to especially help the upcoming generations to see some of the ways life was lived in this area, and have fun doing so,” said Jenny Respess Hollowell, museum board president and an organizer of the festival.

The day’s activities offered something for everyone, including tours of the museum, fundraising auction, displays of antique farm equipment and a quilt exhibit. For the youngsters there was cotton candy, pony rides and a barrel train; live musical entertainment throughout the day added to the festive atmosphere.

“The first year we did this, it was just the museum, and then we began to talk to the town of Pantego about it and they pitched in,” Hollowell said. “Incorporating the town with this function has been wonderful for all of us.”

Vendors have also been added with everything from crafts to locally produced honey offered for sale. And the Eastern Antique Power Association, based in Beaufort County, came on board several years ago with the offer of providing exhibits of antique farm machinery and tools; this year’s event included an early-1900s riding cultivator once used on the Chocowinity farm of Walter and Katie Harding. An EAPA member who once taught at the old Pantego High School also brought along several sports score books that have survived the years.

The museum complex includes the 1874 Pantego Academy building, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as the former George D. Old office and the circa-1880 Pantego jail. The office and jail were offered to the museum and relocated to the academy grounds through the efforts of board members and other civic-minded individuals.

Museum board members and other volunteers work tirelessly to plan and stage the festival, a highlight of Pantego’s fall season.

“Each year, we try to assess what we’ve done and build on that as the year goes along,” Hollowell said. “We try to add new activities and new vendors each year. We’ve done this enough that the basics are in place.”

But one tradition has remained the same: a moving ceremony that kicks off the festival every year.

“We begin with the Boy Scouts raising the flag and the Pledge of Allegiance,” Hollowell said. “It really is a lovely and emotional opening ceremony. I love that part, I really do.”

 

The Pantego Academy Historical Museum, located at 46 Academy St., is open Saturdays and Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. For more information, call 252-943-2200 or visit www.pantegoacademy.com.