Local Author Discusses Book Project To Commemorate Granville’s 275th Anniversary
When Granville County organizers sat down to start planning the county’s 275th anniversary celebration, they surely didn’t have to look far to find the perfect person to write a book marking the event – Lewis Bowling has been chronicling the county’s history for years.
Bowling’s book, Looking Back: 275 years of Granville County History, is 300 pages of text, photographs, maps and more.
He told WIZS’s Bill Harris during Thursday’s Town Talk that he wanted to chronicle as much of those 275 years as he could fit between the covers of a book.
This book, which Bowling describes as a hardback coffee table-style book, will be available beginning on July 24 during a daylong event scheduled for Granville Athletic Park.
If you haven’t yet ordered a copy, you can phone the Granville County administrative office at 919.690.1308 or visit the county’s website at granvillecounty.org.
Bowling said there have been numerous books published about particular areas of Granville County – in fact, he wrote a history of Oxford in 2016 when it celebrated its bicentennial – but as far as he can tell, this is the first comprehensive history for the county.
Bowling writes a weekly column for the Oxford Public Ledger and he said that his readers were most helpful in providing photographs, stories and information whenever he needed it.
“The good thing about being a Granville County historian,” he said, “is that Granville County people just really love their history. I just always can turn to other people, that may be a couple of years older than me, who have seen things I haven’t.”
It took Bowling about a year to research the book and another year to write it. He said his appreciates the help he received from Richard Thornton Library, the Granville County History Museum, as well as the G.C. Shaw Museum and the two orphanages in the county.
The July 24 event at the GAP will be a highlight of the 275th anniversary, Bowling said, and he encouraged all Granville County residents to participate.
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