August 1, 1942
Perquimans
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
En« rtr4 •• .Koed«U»> tullrr. Jun* 1. 1933. >l the PoitcSt* it IUUI«h. NonX
Carolina. undrr lb* Act of 3far<h 3.
187».
It's »n Indian word and inoan.s
"l.nnd of Beautiful
Ионич»."
Within its boundaries are to be
found some of the earliest settle¬
ments in .\orth Carolina.
THE STATE
WE’VE ju»t boon to Edenton.
in Chowan < ’ountv," wo in¬
formed Mr. Charlie Whcd-
Ыч‘.
of Perquimnn? County.
“Chowan is a mighty fine section,”
lie said.
“They’ve got the oldest courthouse
in North Carolina." wo proudly in¬
formed him.
Mr. Whedbee smiled and shook his
head.
“But Jack MacMullan told us,” we
stated.
He shook hi* head again.
“Л.
E. Bufflap told us," we insisted.
Another shake of the head.
“All right then," we told him.
“which county dors have the oldest
courthouse in North Carolina."
“Perquimans,” he calmly an¬
nounced.
“Listen," we told him. “Last week
we wrote up an article in which we
made the statement that the Chowan
County courthouse was built in 17<»7,
replacing the first courthouse which
was built in 1710."
“That’s right." said Mr. Whedbee,
“but ours was built in 1702, which
makes it the oldest courthouse in
North Carolina."
“Can you prove that I" we inquired.
Mr. Whedbee said that the county
records proved it but that some of
them had l>een lost during recent
years.
Personally, we don’t want to get
into the argument, because we don’t
know anything about it. but as the
The Chowan County courthouse
today is practically the same as it
was hack in 1707. So it all depends
upon what you’re looking for. Part
of Perquimans County courthouse
a small part — is the older. But the
entire Chowan County courthouse i-
the older, if you see what wo mean.
Anyway, if we’re not right about
this, we’ll let Jack MacMullan and
Charlie Whedbee argue it out.
Wheeler's History says that "Per¬
quimans County was the earliest set¬
tlement in North Carolina, and
derives its name from the tribe of
Indians who once were owners of the
soil." Mr. Whedbee -ays it ain’t so:
that Perquimans is an Indian word
result of a little investigating on our
part, we submit the following facts:
The original Perquimans court¬
house was built in 17.42. It was of
one story, with the jury room at¬
tached. In 1818 the Masons added
the second story, in return for which
they were allowed to use the large
upper room. In an 1800 remodeling,
extensive changes were made. In
1932, Clinton 'V. Tome, tobacco
manufacturing executive, made pos¬
sible restoration of the building.
Small-pa nod windows, interior panel¬
ing. and heavy inside wooden shutter?
were again installed. The clock
cupola was added and the original
worn red brick wore painted a warm
Front of the Perquimans County
Courthouse. Part of it was built
in 1732.
ivory. On the front of the building
is a tablet:
1732 - 1932
This tablet is placed by Per¬
quimans County in appreciation
of the generosity of Clinton
White Toms in restoring this
courthouse building for the citi¬
zens of his native county.
MAY HAVE TO WAIT
A number of letters arrive in
our office every week asking:
“When arc you coming to our
county to write it up?”
Well, to tell the truth, we
don’t know. Up to the present
time we’re in pretty good shape,
because we’re six counties ahead
and each of these was visited
before the new gas-rationing
regulations went into effect on
July 22 — Perquimans, Curri¬
tuck, Alleghany, Ashe, Wa¬
tauga and Polk. What’ll happen
after we get through with these
is something else, because we
can have only so much gas as
the rationing board says we’re
entitled to have.
i
