The War Congress
■(evolution was in the air as the Third
Provincial Congress met in Hills¬
borough. It nas 200 years ago.
tty MAItY CLAIRE ENGSTROill
On Sunday, August 24. 1975, His¬
toric Hillsborough and Orange County
will join the 29-member Historic Hills¬
borough Commission in commemorat¬
ing the 2(X)th anniversary of North
Carolina's Third Provincial Congress,
the hard-working "War Congress" held
for 21 days. August 20-September 10,
1 775, in what was, two centuries ago,
only a straggling crossroads village in
the Carolina backcountry. The primi¬
tive little town on the Eno River had
been chosen for safety's sake — because
it was so far inland and relatively in¬
accessible.
Some of the 207 elected delegates to
the Congress had never before made
the long journey to Hillsborough and
the backcountry, and they did not ar¬
rive on Sunday, August 20, 1775, as
summoned by Samuel Johnston, Esq.,
of Chowan County, who had called
the Congress. The opening session was
consequently deferred until Monday.
August 21, and eventually 184 mem¬
bers from every county and borough
YOU* RE INVITED TO A CELEBRATION
The public is invited to attend a celebration in Hillsborough on Sunday,
August 24 marking the 200th Anniversary of North Carolina's Third
Provincial Congress.
Hillsborough's observance will be a simple, old-fashioned one with maxi¬
mum attention being focused on what the historic Congress actually accom¬
plished. There will be a 1:00 p.m. bring-your-basket picnic dinner for
everyone on the Green adjacent to the New Courthouse, the kind of tradi¬
tional gathering that Orange County has enjoyed with its neighbors for
generations. Band Director Robert B. Haas and the Orange High School
Marching Band will then present a concert of notable American music,
old and new, following which Congressman L. H. Fountain will speak
briefly. A group of colonial delegates in costume will reenact the reading
and signing of the Test Oath required of the entire convention, and —
climax of the afternoon — Prof. Blackwell T. Robinson of UNC-G will de¬
liver an address on ‘The Third Provincial Congress."
Hillsborough townspeople, led by Mayor Fred S. Cates, will be in co¬
lonial costume for the occasion. Town Crier Lucius M. Cheshire, Sr.,
Keeper of the Clock Allen A. Lloyd, and Keeper of the Weights and
Measures Edwin M. Lynch will, like the Mayor, be in their official regalia —
velvet hats, jabots, ruffles, and chains of office. Color and music there will
be a-plenty as befits the bicentennial of each of North Carolina's historic
steps leading to independence.
Samuel Johnston, Esq. <1733-18161 of Chowon
County »os unonimously elected "president" of
the Third Provinciol Congress which met in Hills-
borough in August, 1775. He loter scried os Gov¬
ernor of the Stole ond os U. S. Senotor from
North Corolino.
town in North Carolina appeared and
took their scats.
A New Scene
The entire backcountry. however,
was suffering that August from a pro¬
tracted drought, gardens and vegetables
were withered and parched, the River
was down to a trickle, and the provision
of food, drink, and lodging for 184
persons for nearly a month must have
put an excessive strain on the limited
resources of a town of only 20 or 30
houses. Nevertheless, Samuel Johnston
wrote to James Iredell on August 22
(the second working day of the Con¬
gress):
“The delegates arc in good
health, and we are tolerably pro¬
vided with accommodations from
the hospitality and obliging dispo¬
sitions of the inhabitants of this
town; and though I think the place
for the town ill-chosen, yet I am
delighted with the country about it
— the face and appearance of it
exhibit quite a new scene to me."
In August, 1775, the little Borough
must have provided a heady at¬
mosphere for any such gathering. All
around were still visible reminders of
the recent Regulator insurrection. The
lot where Edmund Fanning’s "fine
house" had stood was still vacant (and
would remain so for nearly half a cen¬
tury), the knoll to the cast where six
Regulators had been hanged was in full
a
THE STATE. JULY 1975
