By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
As part of the 100th-anniversary celebration of its founding, the Major Reading Blount Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will offer a piece of history to a lucky ticket holder.
The chapter is conducting a raffle for an original watercolor painting of Bellefont, the plantation home that once belonged to Reading and Lucy Harvey Blount.
The painting was done by local artist Brenda Haislet.
“I began working on the original in January,” Haislet said. “I contacted Phyllis Boyd, who owns the house now, and she allowed me to come out and take photographs.”
Initially, Haislet’s painting of Bellefont was going to be used as artwork for invitations to the DAR chapter’s centennial celebration planned for this summer.
“But then we decided to use it as a fundraiser and sell raffle tickets for the original,” Haislet said.
The winner will be announced next week during the next DAR meeting. Tickets are available for $5 each and may be purchased by calling Haislet at 252-946-9784 or DAR Regent Johanna Huber at 252-946-2998.
Prints of Bellefont also are being sold and are priced at $10 for a 5-x-7 and $12 for an 8-x-10; note cards, with four to a pack, are available for $6. The prints and notecards may be purchased at River Walk Gallery on Main Street in downtown Washington.
Bellefont, built during the late 1790s and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been restored to its original beauty and is available for private parties, weddings and other special occasions.
The Georgian-style house is a showplace; among its more interesting features is the 19-foot-wide chimney constructed of bricks imported from England. The plantation acres have been used to grow various crops, including tobacco, corn and cotton.
As for Bellefont’s most notorious owner, Reading Blount was elected captain of the Fifth Regiment of the North Carolina Continental troops at the young age of 19. He served under Gens. Jethro Sumner and Nathaniel Greene, and he was commended for his bravery during the battles of Guilford Courthouse and Eutau Springs. Elected major in 1781, he held this rank until the Revolutionary War ended.
Unlike other war heroes, Blount showed no interest in running for office and shunned politics. It seems he preferred the quiet life of a country planter.