I am off this week with Betty Jane Hobbs Perry (My mother) to Georgia to visit her sister for the week. Read more about my recent experiences in historic Augusta, Georgia.
http://freestateofpatrick.com/blog/category/augusta/
Continuing this week with blogs about older books or books in progress. My next photo book will be on Henry County Virginia.
Click here to see the cover. www.freestateofpatrick.com/henrycocover.pdf Sitting behind the Bassett Bengal is Pam Akers Armstrong, wife of Virginia Delegate Ward Armstrong, who supplied the information for the photo. Pam was a Senior and that year we cheered the Bassett Bengals on to win the Piedmont District Football Championship and were regional runner-ups under Coach Wayne Turner at John D. Bassett High School. This is a photo of the John D. Bassett High School Varsity Cheerleaders for the school year 1970/71. This photo was taken during the 1970 Bassett Christmas Parade. The names of the girls in the photo (all maiden names and classes) are: Front seat row L to R- Lynne Joyce ’71; Pam Akers ’71; and Carol Anthony ’72 Sitting directly behind Lynne Joyce but face is blocked is Myra Terry ’71 (Captain) Back row sitting across rear seat L to R – Clarke Stanley ’72 who is waving and Co-Captain; Vickie Price 72’; Betsy White ’72; Genette Hite ’72 Sitting directly behind Clarke Stanley but also blocked is Cindy Fulcher ’71. I hope the book of 200+ Henry County Virginia photos will be out in March 2009. At present it looks like chapters will be on Bassett, Fieldale, Martinsville and Henry County. This photos are from people who brought pictures to the Bassett Historical Center and from the collection of the library. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Building Fund for the $800,000 expansion of the library.
Continuing this week with blogs about older books or books in progress. My favorite book is J. E. B. Stuart’s Birthplace: The History of the Laurel Hill Farm because it the one I researched the longest (20 years beginning in the late 1980s) and it is the most personal due to my family’s involvement in preserving the site. The new edition is revised, reindexed and published with a new title and new cover look. I hope to have this book along with The Free State of Patrick: Patrick County Virginia In The Civil War, God’s Will Be Done: The Christian Life of J. E. B. Stuart and Ascent To Glory: The Genealogy of J. E. B. Stuart available on Amazon later this summer.
Click here to learn more about the books.
I thought I would do a few blogs about what I am working on these days. First, there is the book that still has sold the most The Free State Of Patrick: Patrick County Virginia In The Civil War. I am in the process of revising all my previously self-published books. I hope that they will soon be available on Amazon with ISBN numbers, etc. The revised version will include several more letters from people in Patrick County bringing that number to 150. I changed the criteria and only photos of soldiers in uniform will be present. I added several soldiers names to the rosters and reindexed the book to reflect all last names as the book is a genealogy tool for many who purchased it. To add a name there had to be a paper record in a pension record, disability record or listed in the Howard Regimental Series or Soldiers and Sailors System of the National Park Service. Just because grandpa said he was in the war is not a good enough reason. The revised book will come in at 240+ pages.
www.freestateofpatrick.com/book.htm
“Like Manna From God: the American Chestnut Trade in Southwestern Virginia”
Dr. Ralph H. Lutts of Meadows of Dan recently published an article in Environmental History. The article is interesting not only for its discussion of the importance of chestnuts in the Patrick County economy, but also because it explains how the chestnut blight of the 1920s contributed to so many Patrick Countians having to find work in coal fields, knitting mills, and furniture factories. One exodus was to Amelia County. Dr. Lutts writes that, “Enough Patrick Countians moved to Amelia County, located southwest of Richmond, to establish the ‘Little Patrick’ community.”
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/eh/9.3/lutts.html
Watching CPSPAN2’s Book TV last weekend I came across David McCullough talking about a new historical project Journey Through Hallowed Ground that is basically a driving trail connecting Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Charlottesville, Virginia. The trail beginning at the national battlefield follows Route 15 south to Orange, Virginia, and then takes Virginia Route 20 to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. For years I have thought we could do a similar type historical trail in Patrick County. I called it the Free State Of Patrick Trail and have tried to get the various historical groups to work together on it with no cooperation.
Read more about both ideas here
HILLSVILLE, Va. - Hillsville has been recognized inside the White House. On June 4, town officials were notified that their application to become a Preserve America Community was approved by First Lady Laura Bush, the honorary chair of the Preserve America initiative. “Preserve America Communities demonstrate that they are committed to preserving America’s heritage while ensuring a future filled with opportunities for learning and enjoyment,” Bush said in a release. “This community designation program, combined with the Preserve America Grant Program, Preserve America Presidential Awards, and other federal support, provides strong incentives for continued preservation of our cultural and natural heritage resources. I commend you for your commitment to preserving an important part of our nation’s historic past for visitors, neighbors, and, most importantly, for children.” The Preserve America initiative is an Administration effort to encourage and support community efforts to preserve and enjoy America’s priceless cultural and natural heritage. The goals of the initiative include a greater shared knowledge about the nation’s past; strengthened regional identities and local pride; increased local participation in preserving the country’s cultural and natural heritage assets; and support for the economic vitality of communities. Hillsville’s application for membership was drawn up by New River Community Partners. Hillsville Town Manager Larry South expressed gratitude to the organization, as well as Bush for the town’s inclusion in the initiative. “We’re very appreciative of New River Community Partners in taking the lead in putting that application for the town,” South said. “The town is very thankful to the First Lady and committee to see fit to bestow the designation for us.” Others that helped Hillsville’s efforts to be included were U.S. Representative Rick Boucher, Sebert Sisson, Sen. Jim Webb, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ New River Navigator, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the Hale-Wilkinson-Carter Home Foundation and the Carroll County Historical Society. Webb applauded Hillsville’s inclusion in the Preserve America initiative. “With many of my ancestors originally settling in Carroll County, I understand the important role that Hillsville has played in the history of Southwest Virginia and I am pleased the federal government has recognized this community,” Webb said in a statement. “The people of Hillsville will benefit greatly from this designation which will help to continue to preserve these historical assets for future generations.” As a Preserve America Community, Hillsville will receive a certificate of designation signed by Bush, signifying that the town’s status in the initiative. In addition, Hillsville can use the Preserve America logo on signs and apply for Preserve America grants, among other rights. In addition, South said it’s possible that Hillsville could receive a visitor from the White House, welcoming the town as a Preserve America Community. “There’s a good possibility that there will be a public ceremony from somebody from the White House or a representative,” he said. “We hope that’s the case and we look forward to it if there is.” South said the designation is something citizens of Hillsville should be proud of, and it further enhances the town’s Historic Downtown. “I think it is a plus for our locale, a plus for our citizens and it could open up some grant money,” South said. “More importantly, I think it opens up the uniqueness of Hillsville.”
– Thomas Lester, The Carroll News
The Woolwine Ruritans, Volunteer Fire Department Smith River Rescue Squad will sponsor the Virginia Covered Bridge Festival on Saturday June 21, 2008. The annual Virginia Covered Bridge Festival will be hosted in Woolwine, Virginia between Jacks Creek and Bob White Covered Bridges. There will be live bands, numerous artists and craftsmen exhibiting and selling their products and food vendors. Wagon rides, tractor pulled hayrides and antique car rides will be available providing travel from one covered bridge to the other. Kids will have a terrific time at the kid activity area that has a petting zoo, moonwalk, face painting and more! In 2007 Patrick County was named the official state location for the Virginia Covered Bridge Festival.
Contact Information
coveredbridgefestival@yahoo.com
(276) 930-2127 or (276)694-8367
Some members of the The Rocky Knob Chapter of the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway are looking to trace the Appalachian Trail when it came along the northern border of Patrick County along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It reminded me of one of my favorite stories. In the spring of 1948, a young man walked along the Blue Ridge Parkway entering Patrick County near the Puckett Cabin. He proceeded up the hill towards present day Doe Run with flaming azaleas and dogwoods in bloom. He noticed Pilot Mountain in the distance and the small community of Ararat, Virginia at the foot of Groundhog Mountain. He veered off the road and crossed over the Pinnacles of Dan noticing the beauty of the Dan River and later wrote that this area was “the most rugged and most spectacular” place he walked that summer. That night it rained on him and he built a fire and the next day continued through Patrick County observing a gray fox with the sunlight glistening on its fur. That day he encountered a talkative farmer named Handy, who stopped his plowing to tell of his 200 acres and his family. He shared a dinner of “fried ham, spoon gravy…stewed apples, goat’s milk and real southern cornbread, the kind that is broken, not sliced” with the family. The young man declined an invitation to spend the night and proceeded on to Meadows of Dan. A storeowner told him of a shelter near Rocky Knob for hikers. He continued past Mabry Mill and like millions of others stopped to take a photograph. He made it to Rocky Knob and wrote, “I finally stumbled into Rocky Knob by starlight and found the shelter was of stone, open on three sides and with a cold wind howling through. I gathered some snags for fireplace wood and a sack full of leaves to cushion the stone floor. The temperature must have been around freezing.” The next morning Earl Shaffer, the first man to walk the entire length of the Appalachian Trail, found himself staring out over Rock Castle Gorge and the Woolwine area of Patrick County with Bull Mountain in the distance. The trail through Patrick County went south from Rocky Knob via the Mountain Mission School over to Lover’s Leap on Highway 58. From there it followed Ivy Creek and the Big Bend of the Dan River crossing the Pinnacles of Dan and over to Bell’s Spur before returning near the Blue Ridge Parkway and along that road to Carroll County. The Appalachian Trail began with the dream of one man, Benton MacKaye, who wrote an article in 1921 about a trail stretching the entire length of the Appalachian Mountains with actual building starting two years later. The Appalachian Trail Conference began in 1925 to coordinate the work of the individual local clubs that took care of different sections of the trail. The headquarters today is located in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. In 1968, Congress passed the National Trails System Act designating the Appalachian Trail as a National Scenic Trail. “County Agent for Floyd County” Mr. Shirley L. Cole apparently thought of the section through Patrick County in 1930. Myron H. Avery, Charlie Thomas and E. M. Wood marked the trail in February 1933, one hundred years after Jeb Stuart was born here. The AT was completed as a continuous footpath in 1937. Earl V. Shaffer of York, Pennsylvania, then 29, walked over 2,000 miles that year from Mount Oglethorpe, Georgia on April 4, to Mount Katahdin, Maine on August 5, 1948. He estimated it was over five million steps. He wrote about this journey in a book Walking With Spring. In 1965, he again walked the entire length of the trail going from north to south becoming the first man to walk the AT in both directions. By this time, the AT relocated much of the trail through Southwest Virginia farther north of Patrick County to avoid walking along roads and into the Jefferson National Forrest. In 1948, National Geographic writer Andrew Brown wrote an article about the AT. He mentions John Barnard of Patrick County, who took care of twelve miles of trail himself. The Barnard home is located near the intersection of Route 724 (Pinnacle Lane) and Route 614 (Squirrel’s Spur Road). Upon finding Barnard’s home, Brown was invited to spend the night. Brown wrote of sitting in a chair on the Barnard porch, “I tipped gently back and forth in a rocker. Black clouds banked up. It was quiet as a desert night. The shower broke and drenched the well trimmed lawn, the round bed of geraniums ringed with pansies, and the rose bushes along the fence. A spate of water gurgled down the drainpipes…Bowls of vegetables and stewed fruit, platters of meat, plates piled high with hot biscuits and corn bread, pitchers of milk and cream, jars of honey and homemade jam crowded the big table. There were squash, string beans, and mashed potatoes; hot veal and cold ham; applesauce and pears; and quantities of sweet farm fresh butter to slather on the hot breads. What a feast!” Next time you are driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Rocky Knob, go up to the Saddle parking lot with a view of Buffalo Mountain on one side and Bull Mountain on the other and walk back towards Rocky Knob along the green trail near the ridge. In just a few minutes you can climb up hill to the shelter that Earl Shaffer spent the night in during 1948 and you can see the vista he encountered when the Appalachian Trail came through Patrick County, Virginia. For a whimsical view of the AT today read Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. Thanks to Douglas Belcher for giving me this idea for an article and reminding me of Harry Truman’s maxim that “There is nothing new in the world. There is only the history you don’t know.”
The Indians called it Jomeokee meaning pilot or guide. In August 1854 Lt. James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart used it as just that, a guide, piloting his trip around piedmont North Carolina and Virginia visiting friends and relatives. One night he found himself camping on Pilot Mountain. Just out of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, Stuart was soon to head west to Texas to join the cavalry of the United States and seven years of service mainly in the 1st U. S. Cavalry stationed in Kansas. Later that night a storm filled with thunder and lightning woke the young officer, who would become our region’s most important historical figure as commander of Robert E. Lee’s cavalry in the War Between the States. Stuart thought of himself as a romantic wrote down a poem dedicated to one of his six sisters entitled “The Dream of Youth.” While the dreams of a young man are nice to read about what can they do for us today? History can be a force for economic growth in our region. Today from the overlook at the “Little Pinnacle” you can see our entire region including the Buffalo Mountain resting on top of the Blue Ridge plateau. The Buffalo is famous due to another young man from Ararat, Virginia, just like “Jeb” Stuart. The Reverend Bob Childress spent half his life at the foot of the Blue Ridge before he moved on top to preach and build the six rock churches made famous in The Man Who Moved a Mountain by Richard Davids. From the Buffalo to the Pilot is the region whose history I write about. I was born in Mount Airy and grew up in Ararat, Virginia. Many people have come from Patrick County to North Carolina. Richard Joshua Reynolds left Virginia to go to Winston to start a tobacco business and he came to Mount Airy to get a wife, Katharine Smith. The Ararat River itself flows from Bell Spur Church in Patrick County down a mountain named after a groundhog to meet the Yadkin River at Siloam. A railroad, The Mount Airy and Eastern, “The Dinky” ran from the banks of the Ararat to the banks of the Dan River in Patrick County’s Kibler Valley. The Native-Americans who named Pilot Mountain or the raptors that migrate to it each year did not see the state line as a barrier and we should not either. We have much common history and we should think regionally in promoting each other. There is plenty of room for Jeb Stuart to walk the same streets as the Siamese Twins and the fictional Barnie Fife. While the focus is often on the Andy Griffith show as a way to bring tourists to the area if you look just across the street from the statue of Andy and Opie is one for George Stoneman’s Raid at the end of the Civil War that came through Mount Airy on April 2, 1865, a week before Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. These were the first Yankees to visit the “Granite City,” but judging from the tour buses on Main Street not the last. So, with this article on our region’s history along the model of Ruth Minick started years ago I am reminded of another connection between Surry County and Patrick County. In the 1920s Carl Griffith crossed the state line into Patrick County to marry Geneva Nunn. Their marriage license is in the Patrick County Courthouse. You probably heard of their son.
