Winton is a town in and the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Hertford County, North Carolina
Hertford County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 21,552. Its county seat is Winton, North Carolina, Winton. It is classified ...
, United States.
It is governed by the Town Council which consists of a Mayor and five Council members. The population was 769 at the
2010 census.
History
The area eventually comprising the town of Winton was proximate to a community of
Meherrin
The Meherrin people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who spoke an Iroquian language. They lived between the Piedmont and coastal plains at the border of Virginia and North Carolina.
The Meherrin Indian Tribe is a stat ...
people. The area was first named Cotton's Ferry in homage to Alexander Cotton, a settler who operated a ferry in the 1740s.
Hertford County was formed effective 1760. The county's first session of court was held at Cotton's Ferry. Benjamin Wynns, who had since acquired Cotton's property, donated 150 acres to the county for the creation of a town in the mid-1760s.
[ In 1766 the town of Winton—originally styled Wynnton after the erstwhile landowner—was established as Hertford's seat of government and a courthouse was subsequently constructed.][ The original spelling of the name was used into the 1800s. The town's economy in its early years relied primarily upon agriculture. In 1830 the original courthouse was burned.][
During the ]American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, North Carolina seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United State ...
. Federal forces intervened in eastern North Carolina early in the conflict, and in February 1862 they captured Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island () is an island in Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was named after the historical Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English colonizat ...
, exposing territory along the Chowan River vulnerable to further penetration. Federal gunboats were subsequently dispatched up the river to destroy rail bridges north of Winton but were repulsed in an ambush by Confederate artillery. The following day federal troops under Colonel Rush C. Hawkins landed at Winton and found it deserted. Angered by the ambush and determined to deny Confederate troops the use of facilities, Hawkins ordered his troops to burn most of the buildings in town. As a result, the vast majority of structures in the town were destroyed,[ including the county courthouse.
After the war the town slowly rebuilt, with a new courthouse erected in 1870. The area economy continued to be based in agriculture, though the local lumber and fishing industries grew in importance in the latter portion of the 19th century.] The town's economy and population continued to grow in the following years. In 1924, Winton was connected south to Ahoskie by the Winton-Ahoskie Highway, and a steel highway bridge was built across the Chowan River at Winton in 1925, the first in the county to cross the river. While the town's bank failed during the Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, the local lumber, fishing, and shipping industries continued to be of importance into the 1950s. Also in the 1950s, the county government invested in the construction of new facilities, including the erection of a new courthouse in 1956.
The agricultural economy which underpinned the Winton region began to consolidate in the mid-20th century. In 1974, a bypass for U.S. Highway 13 was built diverting traffic around the community, leading to sharp decline in business in the town's center. Overfishing and pollution led to the sharp decline of the fishing industry in the 1990s.
The earliest buildings in the Winton Historic District reflect the Italianate, Queen Anne, and Gothic Revival styles of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The C. S. Brown School Auditorium, Gray Gables
Gray Gables was an estate in Bourne, Massachusetts, owned by President Grover Cleveland that served as his Summer White House from 1893 to 1896. It was later converted into the Gray Gables Ocean House hotel, which was destroyed in a fire in 1 ...
, and King Parker House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the town has a total area of , all land.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 629 people, 291 households, and 192 families residing in the town.
2000 census
As of the census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 956 people, 373 households, and 252 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 385 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 67.99% African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 27.62% White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 2.41% Native American, 0.84% from other races, 0.63% Asian, and 0.52% from two or more races. Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 1.78% of the population.
There were 373 households, out of which 31.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.9% were married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 29.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.2% were non-families. 28.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.91.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 25.8% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 25.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.1 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $19,706, and the median income for a family was $21,838. Males had a median income of $21,875 compared to $17,059 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the town was $13,049. About 19.3% of families and 20.0% of the population were below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 23.7% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.
Winton and the surrounding area is the home of the Meherrin Indian Tribe
The Meherrin Indian Tribe is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization in North Carolina. Its members identify as descendants of the Meherrin people. This group is not federally recognized as a Native American tribe.
The Meherrin India ...
. This state-recognized tribe
State-recognized tribes in the United States are Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by state government through laws, governor's executive orders ...
has more than 900 members.
Government and infrastructure
Rivers Correctional Institution, a private prison operated by the GEO Group
The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The company ...
which operates under contract from the Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...
and houses many felons who committed crimes in Washington, DC, is from Winton.[Pierre, Robert E. "N.C. Prison Doesn't Serve D.C. Inmates Well, Critics Say." '']Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''. October 14, 2007. p
1
. Retrieved on February 5, 2016.
Education
The Hertford County Public Schools system serves students in the area, many of whom attend Hertford County High School
Hertford County Public Schools (also called Hertford County Schools) is a PK– 12 graded school district serving Hertford County, North Carolina. The accredited district is led by superintendent Dr. Jesse Pratt and has a five-member board of ...
in Ahoskie. C. S. Brown High School STEM, and The Alternative Learning Program are located in Winton.
Notable person
* Sherman Jones, MLB
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
player and member of Kansas House of Representatives
The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for craftin ...
References
Works cited
*
*
*
*
{{authority control
Towns in Hertford County, North Carolina
Towns in North Carolina
County seats in North Carolina