ABOUT US
What if you gleaned deeper in your rural community and discovered far more than you ever could imagine? That happens with us at Chowan Discovery in carrying out our mission to research, document, preserve and present the Winton Triangle’s fascinating history.
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Among our Winton Triangle findings are Civil War soldiers who were the destroyers of slavery, pioneering school founders, Civil Rights activists, airplane owners, missionaries, a crusading newspaper publisher, the records of a century-old fairground, a woman’s diaries, an early colonial war of genocide, accomplishment beyond what we have seen before - and more.
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A great part of our work is to add value to the past and future of America. Our decade- plus of work attracts the curious, and this includes our local and national audience, genealogists, history professionals, civic leaders, teachers, librarians, curators, journalists and, so dear to us, our supporters.
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While this website cannot offer you everything that we have learned, we want you to explore each page, check in from time-to-time because there is always more to come from Chowan Discovery.
Message for the Executive Director
It has been fifty years since I began photographing people and scenes around my village of Cofield, NC. A few years later, I documented local loggers. My career as a documentary photographer has led me to turn more toward my home community of landowners that straddle the Winton-Cofield-Ahoskie triangle in northeastern North Carolina. Out of my experiences and observations, I coined the name Winton Triangle, a name which has gained some currency.
I have a bit of explorer in me. With the help of others, I founded the Chowan Discovery Group because I realized that the Winton Triangle’s five century-old story was large, endless and little explored. And that conjures my curiosity. While I’m in my third decade of collecting and researching, I still find new areas in and around the Winton Triangle’s past to look into.
Weekly, I get to help people better understand their family’s history because, having grown up around so many relatives and having heard so many stories, I can move beyond my own genealogy and take broad looks at the world of my ancestors and the ancestors of others.
The more I collect, the more I discover ideas for new content. This website features a lot of what Chowan Discovery has produced, and there’s more coming. You can those read about those possibilities on another web page. I can get even more done with your help, and I look forward to you joining me in the adventures.
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- Marvin Tupper Jones, Chowan Discovery Group
On assignment in a
pharmacy research
laboratory - 2008
Board Members
Lynell J. Eure
Ahoskie, NC
Carol A. Joice
Washington, DC
E. Laverne Jones
New York, NY
Marvin Tupper Jones
Washington, DC
Rex Pierce
Ahoskie, NC
2018 Award from the Afro American Historical and Genealogical Society
2014 Award from the North Carolina Society of Historians
2021 Award from the
Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage
OUR VISION
We work to give new value to the Winton Triangle area by recognizing our area's historical, social and economic importance.
WHAT WE DO
It is our mission to point out and enlighten all about the gifts that the Winton Triangle has made to the world. We do this by connecting our research with our audiences.
OUR COMMUNITY
...while centered in Hertford County, NC, Chowan Discovery stride to benefit beyond its region as well. Our lecture topics reach from Hertford County to Haiti.