AGENDA #1c

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, on September 9, 1752 a new county was born in North Carolina – a county that spanned the area from present-day Greensboro to present-day Durham, from the Virginia line to the Uwharrie mountains; and

WHEREAS, on that day, Orange County became a reality as its first colonial court of Common Please and Quarter Sessions was held at Grayfields along the Eno River; and

WHEREAS, the new county – originally inhabited by the Occaneechi/Saponi nation and other native American tribes – encompassed a land area of 3,500 square miles, including all of present day Alamance, Caswell, Person, Durham and Chatham counties as well as parts of Wake, Lee, Randolph, Guilford and Rockingham counties; and

WHEREAS, as citizens of one of the oldest Piedmont counties, Orange County’s 120,000 residents have a lot to celebrate, including

• A commitment to education, from the founding of the University of North Carolina, the nation’s first state university when it opened in 1795 to local school systems rated today among the best in the southeastern United States.
• A will to preserve cultural and natural resources such as the county’s tapestry of distinctive buildings and neighborhoods as well as farmland and natural treasures like Occoneechee Mountain and the Eno River corridor.
• A growing diversity, beginning with Indian nations, recast by the arrival of people from Europe and Africa, and shaped recently by the addition of persons from Asia, Latin America and other parts of the globe.
• An ongoing love of independence, whether reflected in the actions of Regulators or the patriots of the American Revolution, by women fighting for equality, African-Americans struggling to secure their civil rights, sharecroppers and millworkers striving for dignity, or free-speech advocates protecting free expression in the mid-20^th century;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town of Chapel Hill commends Orange County Government on its 250th anniversary and encourages town residents to celebrate and educate themselves about the people, past and present, who have called Orange County home.

GIVEN UNDER MY HAND AND THE SEAL OF THE TOWN OF CHAPEL HILL, ON THIS, THE TWENTY-SIXTH DAY OF AUGUST, IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND TWO.

______________________________

Kevin C. Foy, Mayor