Hyde County Inside and Out

Hyde County Inside and Out

By Anita Twyne

Hyde County has some amazing aspects. In the following paragraphs I am going to share with you many of them. I will tell you when the county was formed and who the founder of it was. I will share with you some of the leading industries and the employment fields for its current population. Also I'll share the percentage of residence that hold religious affiliation, and the diversity of those who are non-believers. You will read quotes about the political standards of Republican verses Democratic. I will give you information about the quality of the public school system and some of its accomplishments. Lastly, I will show you how all of this information impacts the quality of life in the Hyde County. There are more ways to show you how Hyde County has grown and continues to flourish these are only a few of them.

Hearing the name, Hyde County, might bring many questions to a readers mind. Such a question might be; where is Hyde County? It is located on the eastern side of North Carolina. The surrounding bodies of water are the Atlantic Ocean, the Pamlico Sound, Alligator River, Shoal River and the Pungo. You can travel to it by land however; the small island of Ocracoke is only accessible by ferry. There are several counties in North Carolina, one hundred to be exact. The making of a county is not done overnight. It is created within years upon years. A lot of things must take place for a county to form. The state constitution determines the formation of a county. It can be determined from the amount of population and property value. Once a county is formed, its boundaries can be changed. Any county that becomes too big can be changed to form a new one. This is what happened in the early formation of Hyde County. One of three precincts in Bath County formed Hyde County on December 3, 1705. It was called Wickham Precinct. "A Precinct, according to the Student Dictionary, is a subdivision or district of a city or town; an area or enclosure with definite boundaries."(The American Heritage Student Dictionary, by Hughton Mifflin, pg 753) It was named Hyde Precinct in 1712. This name was after the Governor of North Carolina, Edward Hyde. Who was in office, from 1711 to 1712. Twenty seven years later, in 1739 Hyde County was established. It still had several territorial adjustments to be made before it became the county we know today. In the following years, Lake Mattamuskeet, part of Currituck County and Ocracoke Island became part of Hyde County. It wasn't until 1870 that Hyde County territorial adjustments became complete. "However the boundaries of Hyde County have changed more than any other county in North Carolina."(http://hydecountync.gov/). According to the US Census Bureau, the county covers a total area or 1, 424 square miles. Within it is 613 miles of land and 811 is water. Currituck, Fairfield, Lake Landing, Ocrocoke and Swan Quarter are included in the Township of Hyde County.

There are many leading industries in Hyde County. One of which is lumber. In the 1800's the small community of Broad Creek was mostly a farming community. In 1892 it build the Scranton Land and Lumber Company. This company was the start of lumber being a major industry. Today the forest are not as plentiful as back then. So the industries that are helping the county to flourish in today's economy are fishing and agriculture. These types of jobs account for fifteen percent of the employment in Hyde County. Fishing of course is done in the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding sounds. I am engaged to an ex-commerical fisherman and he says it is a hard way to make money. Lots of long hours and sometimes you bring in a pile of fish and sometimes you don't. There are also fishermen that go in the sounds daily to fish, crab, oyster and clam. These are sold to local merchants and fish houses throughout the area. Sometimes it is brought to local restaurants and shipped out to other states. This also happens with the agriculture. What is grown can be sold to local merchants and large quanties are shipped out to other states. Of course you have tourism that brings in lots of money to the county. It also allows an opportunity for employment but most of the jobs are seasonal. The shops close down when winter comes.

There are many views of religion within this county. You can see this by the amount of churches located everywhere. One might say it is a very religious county but the statists say different. All the parking lots at the churches are full on Sunday and the days of services. Thirty-seven percent of the county's churches