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NASHVILLE
TARBORO
Motorists drive down Main Street in downtown Tarboro.
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Tarboro is the ninth-oldest town in the state and served the area as an important colonial river port and thriving trade center until the Civil War.
Although it is generally agreed that the area around Tarboro was settled by 1733, Edward Mosley's map of that year shows only Tuscarora Indians in the area. In early days, the area was widely known as "Tawboro,” a name attributed to "Taw,” the Indian word for "river of health.”
Tarrburg, as the town was called on maps of 1770-75, was chartered Nov. 30, 1760, as Tarborough by the General Assembly. In September of the same year, Joseph and Ester Howell deeded 150 acres of their property to the Rev. James Moir, Lawrence Toole, a merchant, Capts. Aquilla Sugg and Elisha Battle and Benjamin Hart for five shillings and one peppercorn.
As commissioners, these men were to lay out a town with lots of not more than onehalf acre and streets not wider than 80 feet, with 12 lots and a 50-acre "common" set aside for public use. Lots were to be sold for two pounds, with the proceeds to be turned over to the Howells; however, full payment was not received for all of the 109 lots sold, and some were not sold for the 40 shillings price.
Tarboro officially became the Edgecombe County seat in 1764 and the General Assembly met there once in 1787 and again in 1987. President George Washington is known to have slept in Tarboro during a visit on his 1791 Southern tour.
Nowadays, Tarboro has slightly less than 11,000 residents and is governed by a mayor and council and a town staff that manages the day-to-day operations.
Candace Bailey Owens and her late husband, Ambrose Lloyd Owens Jr., came to
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Tarboro to settle down and raise a family in 1968 and never left.
“Oh, we’d talk about some place we thought we’d want to go,” Candace said, mentioning Edenton and New Bern, among others. “But we never left. We knew we could never leave Tarboro ... would never leave Tarboro.”
Then, just as now, Candace says the people make Tarboro a welcoming and warm place.
“The old-timers says it’s a welcoming community, but the newcomers have a tendency to call it cliquish,” Owens said.
Still, it’s hard for someone to walk downtown or along Main Street and not be greeted multiple times.
It’s the same story in the cafes and coffee shops, as people are warm and friendly and welcoming.
Today, Tarboro is the home of Edgecombe Community College, which opened as an extension unit of Wilson County Technical Institute in 1967 and in 1968, held its first classes. In 1987, the college was renamed Edgecombe Community College and has since expanded its campus size.
In January 2016, ECC opened a 45,000-square-foot Biotechnology and Medical Simulation Center on its Rocky Mount campus and the 23,000-square-foot Center for Innovation on the Tarboro campus. In 2018, Deborah Lamm retired as president of ECC, eventually being replaced by Gregory McLeod, ECC’s fifth president and its first black president.
Back in 1937, another significant occurrence took place when, on Jan. 7, construction commenced on 32 miles of electric lines from the Town of Tarboro to Hassell, and on April 17, 1937, the cooperative threw its first switch to energize the homes of 82 cooperative members.
This historical event made EdgecombeMartin County EMC the oldest rural electric cooperative in North Carolina and one of the oldest in the nation.
Tarboro is home to a 45-square-block historic district and a vibrant downtown historic district with multiple home-owned businesses.
As Mayor Joe Pitt has noted on multiple occasions, the people are what make Tarboro special. They are opening and welcoming, whether at one of the community’s many festivals, the July 4 fireworks, the Christmas Parade, a Tarboro High School Vikings school activity or the newest activity in town, the Tarboro River Bandits collegiate league baseball team.
Liquid Pleasure performs during a Downtown Live concert at Courthouse Square in Tarboro. A customer checks out a vendor’s display at the Tarboro Market under the portico of the Tarboro Brewing Co. on Main Street.
New Year’s Eve revelers dance during the New Year’s Ball Drop in downtown Tarboro.
The annual Happening on the Common cultural arts festival is held in May on the Town Common in Tarboro.
