The Edenton Tea Party Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution held a Constitution Day ceremony Thursday, Sept. 17, at the Hugh Williamson Memorial in Elizabeth Vann Moore Park.
The ceremony brought attention to both the Constitution and a monument that took more than two decades of local effort to build. In a history of the memorial prepared for the event, Beth Taylor traced the project to an idea Virginia Wood presented to the DAR chapter about 26 years ago: honoring Hugh Williamson, a signer of the U.S. Constitution who lived in Edenton.
According to Taylor’s account, Wood and Taylor presented the proposal to the Chowan County commissioners, who approved the project. Commissioner appointments followed in 2002, and a design for the memorial received approval in 2003. The effort lost its funding in 2009 during the recession, but regained momentum in 2015 when Mayor Roland Vaughan and State Historic Sites Director Bob Hopkins supported placing the monument in Elizabeth Vann Moore Park.
Taylor wrote that Frank Parker prepared a design, cost estimate and site plan. Funding was announced in 2016 after the North Carolina General Assembly approved the project. The monument was installed in April 2017 and dedicated on Constitution Day that year.
“Two words best describe this project — patience and perseverance,” Taylor wrote in her history. She credited Wood’s vision and the work of many others with making the memorial a reality.
This year’s program included remarks by chapter Regent Bonnie Henn and Constitution Day Chair Caroline Butler, a wreath laying, and a presentation by guest speaker Dick Mayer titled The Life and Times of Hugh Williamson . Sandra Williams, the chapter’s chaplain, offered the devotion and benediction.
