Family Bibles. Broken bits of centuries-old pottery. A taxidermied fox or two.

And a coffin, never used.

The coffin was a floor model, displayed in one of the many general stores that used to dot Pamlico County. Today, the coffin is on display at the Pamlico County Museum and Heritage Center in Grantsboro. Pat Prescott, the museum’s former executive director, explained each general store had its own draw — an item or service that only it provided.

“I remember when there were five stores in Grantsboro that sold groceries,” she said.

Those small family businesses are long gone, replaced by national one-stop-shop chains. Their goods and furniture — such as the coffin, empty tins advertising bygone products and a round butcher’s block for cutting cheese — exist in the museum as a reminder of what life in the county used to look like.

“Everything in this building was a donation,” Prescott said.  Museum funds go only toward maintenance, not purchases.

Prescott explained that the museum was started by a group of dedicated local historians. The Pamlico County Historical Association began in the early 1970s, producing a book on the first 100 years of the county, 1872 to 1972. Stories from Pamlico’s many towns were gathered in the book, “Pamlico County: 100 Years,” including the earliest records of the county’s commissioners.

Before February 1872, Pamlico was part of Craven County. The book records the instructions of the earliest county commissioners. One of their first acts was to “make arrangements to prevent the Sherriff [sic] of Craven County from collecting the County and Poor Tax in the County. Legal advice was ordered.”

The first decade of the county’s existence was spent settling debts between Craven and Pamlico,  marking out land in Bayboro for public sale, determining the county seat, and establishing a courthouse, a jail and a poor house, which provided housing and support for the needy. According to the book, commissioners in those early years also set fees and payments for county residents, and determined costs for “maintaining” prisoners and paupers.

The book looks at the early workings of a county government, and shows how the county came to exist as it is today.

The book was the beginning of the Historical Association’s preservation efforts. Its next goal was to establish a museum to store that history. Prescott credits George Peacock, a history teacher at Pamlico High School, a county historian and an original member of the Historical Association, “as being one of those people who’s been a driving force” to make it all happen.

It took decades to find the right place and secure enough money. Eventually, members of the Historical Association made a deal with the Chamber of Commerce to construct an addition for the museum in the back of the small chamber building.

It took several years to wrangle finances. Volunteers offered their time and skills to build display cabinets, paint murals, set up wildlife exhibits, and help turn a blank space into a functional museum.

The doors of the Pamlico County Museum and Heritage Center finally opened in 2006.

It sits near the intersection of state highways 55 and 306, just down the road from Bojangles. The impressively large space contains a carefully curated collection of oddments from local families.

The museum contains a genealogy room, which is free for the public. Thick family Bibles lay on three-ring binders lining the shelves. Hand-drawn maps are tucked between a desk and rolls of architectural drawings. On the wall, next to a framed christening gown is a handwritten letter in fading cursive. Dated January 1840, it promises Asa Lee payment from 13 individuals in return for building a schoolhouse “on the sand hills near the Pampleco [sic] road.”

Yearbooks, church minutes, memoirs, family histories, and birth and death records decorate the walls.

The room gets a lot of use. “We used to have a genealogist who donated her time and effort to this,” Prescott said. “She was here for years.” But when she aged out, there were no volunteers with her skill to take over the work.

Like many museums, this one runs on volunteers. “We’ve had really good years and really bad years,” Prescott said. Funding for the space comes from yearly membership dues, donations and the occasional raffle.

Prescott recalled one particularly successful fundraising idea: donated tractors.  “We managed to get old tractors donated and get them in working condition … through the efforts of volunteers,” she said.

For nearly five years, a newly refurbished tractor was raffled off each year. “We had people out every weekend at whatever kind of festival was happening within a hundred miles, selling tractor tickets,” Prescott said. “And that's probably been one of our most successful fundraisers.”

There are no funds from the local government. The county does not contribute to the museum for the same reason it does not contribute to the library. “ I understand, having served as a county commissioner as well, that that's opening a door to everybody coming out of the woodwork wanting funds,” Prescott said

Money is always an issue, she said, and it can be difficult to help people understand why a history museum is necessary: “People don’t realize how history shapes who we are.”

Prescott retired as executive director, and now spends her time volunteering as a museum guide for school groups. Most kids, she said, are just happy to be out of school.  “But it's rewarding to be able to pick out that handful of kids who get it,” she said. “You can always tell they're the ones who come closest to you. They're not cutting up and running around. They're genuinely interested. You always have those few, and that — that's rewarding.”

Exhibits are rotated regularly to keep the experience fresh. A military display is currently under construction. Nearby, a display that contained items about Ned Delamar, a legislator who helped pioneer the community college system in North Carolina, has been swapped for a doctor’s leather bag and information about Dr. Richard Hudson, who built the Pamlico Medical Center in Bayboro. His wife, Jeannette Hudson, was instrumental in setting up several of the museum’s permanent displays.

At the back of the building, behind closed doors, rests a larger part of the museum’s collection: a horse-drawn carriage, a Model A Ford and several hand-hewn wagons for use on a farm.

Many of those are used when the museum participates in festivals and events. Prescott said the cars and wagons draw the attention of men who might not otherwise be interested in history. For women, household things tend to grab their attention, she said. “They see things and say ‘oh, my grandmother had that.’ And they've probably never thought about that item until they see it again,” Prescott said.  “And then suddenly, it’s ‘oh, I don't see these anymore.’”

Prescott said that gets people thinking about history, and the importance of preserving such things.

There are also some permanent displays: an old kitchen with an ice box instead of a refrigerator, a barn with farming tools and dried tobacco, and an old attic space holding items that don’t fit anywhere else.

But that’s not all. Outside are four locked buildings: a blacksmith shop, a barbershop, a red schoolhouse, and a simple, old building that was donated for preservation. The schoolhouse “came here in pieces and was reconstructed,” Prescott said.

The buildings are open during large events, such as the Pamlico County Heritage Festival.

Although most of the artifacts have been examined and explained, some are still awaiting identification.

Community members are  invited to visit the free museum, use the genealogy room, and become a member or volunteer. Hours are typically Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Member meetings are held monthly and open to the public. The next meeting is slated for Sept. 8.

Donate and become a vital part of growing a visual and written history of the county.

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