Whitley County bicentennial birthday party pushed back to Thursday

Whitley County is celebrating the 200^th anniversary of its founding this year, and the celebration starts with a party Thursday afternoon.

“It’s an actual birthday party,” said Whitley County Projects Director Amber Owens. “We will have a huge cake. We will have a PowerPoint presentation with a bunch of old pictures.”

The party will start at 3 p.m. in the old courthouse in the fiscal court meeting room, but the cake and slide show will be set up earlier than that.

The party was initially scheduled for Wednesday, but county officials decided to postpone it until Thursday due to the weather, Owens said late Tuesday afternoon.

“The courthouse will be decorated in red, white and blue! We are asking all Whitley County businesses to help us celebrate by decorating your windows and/or store fronts for this once in a lifetime occasion,” Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. said in a letter sent to local businesses last month.

Wednesday’s “birthday party” will be the first of many events planned to celebrate the bicentennial this year.

The county has events scheduled every month throughout the year.

Williamsburg plans to concentrate its celebration with a variety of events in April, which is the month when talks officially began in 1818 at Samuel Cox’s house about founding the county with Williamsburg as the county seat.

Cox donated six acres of land where the original courthouse was built. He also had a tavern where meetings were held.

Officials plan to unveil a historical marker commemorating the founding of the county on April 7.