South Carolina Genealogy

The Spartanburg Downtown Airport will be the topic of discussion at Lunch & Learn Spartanburg on Friday, May 21, 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the Spartanburg Regional History Museum at the Chapman Cultural Center. The speaker will be Maj. Gen. Darwin H. Simpson, Director of the Spartanburg Downtown Airport, which recently broke ground on a $4.5 million renovation project. The Spartanburg Downtown Airport was South Carolina’s first airport. This will be the first facelift for the facility in its 75-year history. Attendance is only $5, and you are welcome to bring your lunch. The meeting will be in the first-floor conference of the Moseley Building at the Chapman Cultural Center. It is being presented by the Spartanburg County Historical Association. For more information or reserve seating, please call 596-3501 or email njefferies@spartanburghistory.org.

For those of you in the Upstate….

The next meeting of the Spartanburg History Hub is scheduled for Thursday, May 27, 7:00 pm at 234 S. Spring Street, Spartanburg, behind the main post office. (This is one of the Preservation Trust’s renovated Hampton Heights homes and you can wander through it.) There is no charge for attending meetings of the Spartanburg History Hub and we’ll wrap up promptly at 8:00 pm. There will be the opportunity for introductions and brief announcements. Feel free to bring fliers or brochures so you can give a short announcement and interested parties can pick up the detailed information afterward. Jack Parker will be with us from Camden to talk about and autograph his new book, Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina (http://www.screvwarguide.com/). Special thanks to members Bob & Christine Swager for luring him to Spartanburg by offering accommodations at their “B&B!”

Each of us involved with history has a unique set of skills, experiences, and resources related to preserving and promoting history. If we combine our strengths, we will take Spartanburg County’s history community to the next level which will benefit us as well as our communities at large. This Hub is designed to bring people and organizations with a commitment to Spartanburg County history together to share what they’re doing, hear what others are doing, and facilitate learning and collaboration. The Hub won’t work if you don’t come!

I’ve got a few news items from the Spartanburg Historical Association Roundup over the last few days. First off, the Hub City Railroad Museum seems to be a big hit!

The Hub City Railroad Museum opened this past Saturday and was a big hit! They will continue to be open on Wednesdays from 10-2 and on Saturdays from 8-2. This is an entirely volunteer organization and they are looking for volunteers who can welcome and inform visitors to the museum. Even if you don’t know a lot about Spartanburg’s railroad and industrial history, they are ready to teach you and you will work with an experienced railroad history volunteer. The goal is to have 2 people each time the museum is open.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Lauren Ponder, Spartanburg Convention and Visitors Bureau
864-594-5051-phone, 864-594-5052-fax, lponder@visitspartanburg.com www.visitspartanburg.com

Hub City Railroad Museum Grand Opening.
Spartanburg, SC, April 19th, 2010 – The Hub City Railroad Museum is planning its Grand Opening for Saturday, May 1st. Kicking off National Transportation Week, the grand opening will be from 8am through 4pm in and around the Magnolia Street Train Station (298 Magnolia St.) where the museum is housed.
Activities include tour rides every hour and a half running at 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am and 1pm that will take you on the Main Street Trolley through the City of Spartanburg detailing the historical spots that made Spartanburg known as the Hub City. Trolley tours will be $5 per person with all proceeds going back to the museum and are first come first served.

A videographer will also be on staff between the hours of Noon and 2pm to create a living history of the rails in Spartanburg County in hopes of showing the final piece inside the museum once it has been compiled.

Lil’ Pigs BBQ will provide lunch with 20% of the earnings going back to the museum as well.

Classic cars and trucks and possible orchard tractors will be displayed to show machinery from a specific time period and how things were transported from the trains once delivered.

Donations will be accepted as there will be no charge to enter the museum. Small gift shop items will also be available. The Museum’s normal hours will be Saturdays 8am – 2pm and Wednesdays 10am – 2pm with group tours by appointment.

The Hub City Railroad Museum is a collaborative effort between the Spartanburg Convention & Visitors Bureau, the National Railway Historical Society and the Spartanburg County Historical Association.

Once again – I wanted to pass this along for the Spartanburg County Historical Association:

Don’t miss this Friday’s Lunch & Learn Speaker Series. Dr. Tracy Revels of Wofford College presents “The Cult of True Womanhood” discussing the 19th Century ideal which American women aspired to achieve. BYOL (that’s bring your own lunch) and be ready to discuss how modern media influence our understanding of gender roles today.

Lunch & Learn is from 12:30-1:30 in the 1st floor Conference Room in the Moseley Building of the Chapman Cultural Center. That’s the same building as the History Museum and Art Museum. $5 at the door. Contact Nannie Jefferies at 864-596-3501 or njefferies@spartanburghistory.org for more information.

The Lunch & Learn Speaker Series is organized by the Regional History Museum, one of four sites operated by the Spartanburg County Historical Association. The Association’s mission is to explore and preserve our region’s history by collecting and sharing the stories and artifacts of the people who shaped that history. We do this by engaging visitors in unique living history programs in the city and county of Spartanburg, by inspiring learners of all ages to investigate the history that begins in their own backyard at our Regional History Museum and at our three historic sites – Walnut Grove Plantation, Price House, and Seay House, and by involving the community in the preservation and promotion of our shared past through the Spartanburg History Hub – a network of people and organizations committed to Spartanburg history.

I received this and was asked to share…. quick summary from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, April 24, Walnut Grove Plantation presents “Childhood on the Plantation”.

Childhood on the Plantation Explores Children’s Lives during Peace and War in the Late 1700s

Roebuck, SC, April 15 — Living at the time of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, children of the late 1700s, particularly in frontier areas like the South Carolina Backcountry, were directly and intimately affected by war. Boys–teenaged and younger–served in armies and militia companies in both combat and non-combat roles. Some even worked as spies. Wives and children followed their husbands and fathers to war, performed many domestic duties in army camps, and at times picked up arms in battle themselves.
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For your information – I was asked to share this….

PRESS RELEASE

Living Green at the Seay House
Saturday, April 17, 2010, 11:00 am -4:00 pm (Rain or Shine)
106 Darby Road, Spartanburg
Admission is free, but donations are welcomed.

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Received this via email…

The April meeting of the Revolutionary War Roundtable of the Backcountry will be held on Monday evening, April 19, in the Montgomery Room of the Burwell Building at Wofford College. The program features Nadia Dean, Revolutionary War Historian and author, as she presents The Cherokee – British Alliance during the Revolutionary War – Its impact and ramifications.

Details of the meeting are attached.

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Another release here from a list that I get announcements from…. looks like fun.

Woodruff, SC, March 15, 2010 — Come experience a Taste of the Backcountry – South Carolina as it was in the early 1800s! Taste of the Backcountry, an annual festival presented at the Historic Price House by the Spartanburg County Historical Association, explores the food, the methods of food preparation, and the daily life of Backcountry settlers in the early 19th century. See demonstrations of hearth cooking and other domestic arts such as weaving and egg dyeing. BBQ and baked goods–favorites of today’s South Carolinian–will be available for purchase. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., evaluators will be on site to offer an educated evaluation of your antiques at no additional charge (2 item limit, please). Guided tours of the Price House and slave cabin will be available as well as period music. Come and make a day of it!

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The event is this Saturday the 20th. Sorry I’m so late posting, but I thought it might be in time for some of you. I was also informed “Lunch in the past has been provided by the college. Budgets do not permit us to offer such this year. The normal buffet meal will be available in the dining room upstairs for $7.50, or participants can bring their own picnic lunches and eat on the patio. Drinks will be provided at no charge by Charlie Gray/Wofford Continuing Education.”

March 9, 2010

‘Singin’ Billy’ Walker Shape-Note Singing set for March 20
Event at Wofford College free, open to public

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Shape-note singers from around the Southeast will gather again at Wofford College on Saturday, March 20, for the annual tribute to Spartanburg native William “Singin’ Billy” Walker (1809-1875), the man who helped bring musical literacy to remote country churches around the South.

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