The town of Ayden held its second Founders Day Celebration from Feb. 2-3 to celebrate the town’s 133rd anniversary with several events for people to come out and enjoy over the weekend.
On Feb. 2 the Ayden Museum was open for tours from 2-5 p.m. and serving hot cider to visitors, and at 4 p.m. the Backyard Bandits antique car show was at the West Avenue stage.
An art show and reception at 5 p.m. at the Community Building next the museum featured work by K-12 students from Grifton and Ayden schools, with music provided by the band Oakdale Drive in the vestibule.
A crowd of about 50 people attended the reception, which included a community birthday celebration sponsored by the Ayden Historical and Arts Society and Downtown Ayden Inc.
Marvin “Bear” Baldree, mayor of Ayden from 1985-1995, thought it would be interesting to start the program off with “I remember when” and shared his memories of the town when the roads were unpaved, the town had one policeman, no cars, three doctors, and a mule stable downtown where Happy’s Antiques is now located.
The main guest speakers at the celebration were Josh Richardson and author Angela Robinson.
Richardson said he began looking into the historic documents regarding land in Ayden in July 2022 when they started experiencing drainage issues.
In Richardson’s presentation he traced his family lineage and the land that they owned, which led him to his sevent great grandfather, Jeremiah McLawhorn (1718-1788). He found a land grant for 640 acres in Pitt County south of the Tar River and west of Swift Creek on both sides of Spring Branch.
In his research, Richardson discovered his sixth great grandfather, Arthur Mclawhorn (1773-1868), and displayed a map he found of Otter Town, understood to be Arthur Town, which is modern-day Ayden. He explained the rest of his family lineage leading to their contributions to the incorporation of the town of Ayden.
Robinson said she has been doing family research since 2012 and created a booklet about her relative Jonh S. Mills (1910-1936), who is buried in the Ayden African American Ancestral Cemetery. She discovered his parents John Mills and Emma Kittrell’s marriage certificate from 1897.
During her presentation, she wanted to stress to the citizens who wanted to do their own family research to ensure that they observed everything in any document they could find because of where it could lead them in their journey.
After the presentations, the Oakdale Drive band lead everyone to sing happy birthday to Ayden, and a birthday cake made by Gwendy’s Goodies was served to the guests.
On Feb. 3, the Ayden African American Ancestral Cemetary had tours of the historic site from 10 a.m.-noon, there was an Art show and Quilt exhibit at the Ayden Town Community Building from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., the Ayden Musuem was open from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m., and at 8 a.m. the professionally sanctioned Down East High School Invitational Disc Golf Tournament at Ayden District Park.
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