m him for violation of the tavern laws.

Many an illustrious guest the ancient inn has known, and a story
cherished by the Hertford people ascribes to the quaint old structure
the honor of having on one occasion sheltered beneath its roof the
illustrious "Father of his Country," George Washington.

[Illustration: EAGLE TAVERN, HERTFORD, NORTH CAROLINA]

Whether our first President came to Hertford on business connected with
lands in the Dismal Swamp in which he was interested, or whether he
tarried at the old tavern while on his triumphal journey through the
South in 1791, no one now knows, but the room is still shown, and the
tale still told of the great man's stay therein.

Diagonally across the street from the Eagle Tavern, at the end of the
yard enclosing the old Harvey home, may be seen two great stones which
are said to mark the grave of a mighty Indian chief. Possibly
Kilcokonen, friend of George Durant, lies buried there. The Hertford
children in olden days, when tales of ghost and goblin were more readily
believed than they are to-day, used to thrill with delicious fear
whenever in the dusk of the evening they passed the spot, and warily
they would step over the stones, half-dreading, half-hoping to see, as
legend said was possible, the spirit of the old warrior rise from the
grave, swinging his gory tomahawk and uttering his blood-chilling war
cry.

During the long years that have passed since the white man came into
Albemarle, old Perquimans has borne an enviable part in making the
history of our State.

Hertford itself felt little of the fury of the storm of the War of
Secession, though during the awful cataclysm the peaceful Perquimans was
often disturbed by the gunboats of the Northern Army. One brief battle
was fought in the town, in which one man was killed on each side. And
the old residents still love to boast of the heroism shown by the
courageous Hertford women, who, while the skirmish was going on, came
out on their piazzas, and, heedless of the shot and shell flying thick
and fast around them, cheered on the soldiers battling to defend their
homes.

A ball from one of the gunboats on the river, while this skirmish was
taking place, went through one of the houses down near the shore and
tore the covering from the bed on which the mistress of the house had
just been lying.

The cruel war at last was over, the darker days of Reconstruction passed
heavily and stressfully by; the South began t