From Gillian Hookway-Jones

Although the Governor’s recent visit to Bath and the special 300th Port Bath celebration with beach music, skydivers, and glorious fireworks are over, some Port Bath Tricentennial excitement lingered for local school children last week as summer vacation approached. Each Beaufort County fourth-grade student was sent home with a free red, white and blue 300th Port Bath commemorative souvenir booklet, a countywide gift of summer reading to share with family and friends.

On the heels of the May 28 BathFest/Port Bath 300th celebration attended by several thousand people in the Town of Bath, Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Don Phipps approved a donation of 506 grassroots-sponsored 300th Port Bath 1716-2016 souvenir copies. They were distributed to fourth-graders, who this year studied North Carolina history in the five Beaufort County elementary schools. The distribution coincided with the dismissal of school for the summer.

“These booklets for our children are full of history and contain many images

contributed at no charge by our local history stakeholders, stewards of our North Carolina history and artifacts,” said Historic Bath and Historic Port of Washington volunteer Gill Jones. “Besides our wonderful booklet sponsors and the public officials who sent greetings, we want to thank and point out especially to children the following contributors: Governor Pat McCrory, who contributed a special proclamation declaring the importance of the Port Bath tri-centennial date to citizens throughout the state; the Historic Bath site and Division of Cultural Resources Archives, which lent the 1981 unpublished report by historian Wilson Angley, who compiled records from London and the 13 original colonies of colonial era vessels, cargo imports and exports; the Tryon Palace collections from New Bern, which contributed the 1740 Probst engraving showing the London Custom House near the Tower of London, which at one time housed Port Bath’s records and also welcomed each and every colonial Bath vessel and sea captain sailing to London; Brown Library, which contributed the 1769 Sauthier map of Bath; and last but not least, we thank the rare manuscripts collection from East Carolina University’s Joyner Library, which contributed the 1733 Moseley map images of the Pamlico River region, colonial Bath and Ocracoke. I also want to point out Marti Buchanan’s crisp contemporary photos, showcasing numerous preserved structures in Historic Bath, highlight our community’s early 18^th-century river heritage. We encourage everyone of all ages to visit the historic homes or just walk the quiet streets by the water from Bath Creek bridge to Back Creek bridge. Our local printer, Derrek Ingalls, did a great job putting together something suitable students, educators, and the general public of all ages together in one quality compact color publication.“

The electronic versions of the souvenir booklet are available 24/7 for teachers and librarians on slideshare.net to use in lesson planning and to share with incoming fourth and eighth grades studying N.C. history and social studies. Copies are also available for sale locally while supplies last at the Bath Historic Site visitor center, Ingall’s Printers on Respess Street in Washington, and Pirate’s Treasure Gift shop in Bath. Fellow volunteer and c-editor Buchanan said, “On May 28, we were so pleased that the governor and representatives from the Division of Cultural Resources took their copies back to Raleigh to go in the N.C. State Archives for posterity: even more wonderful this week is to know that every one of our fourth-graders in the public school system will now go home to their families with one.

For more information, contact Gillian Jones at gillian1007@hotmail.com or Marti Buchanan at 252-923-7501.