South Carolina Genealogy

The Spartanburg Regional History Museum Presents Lunch & Learn Spartanburg:

Dr. Jeffery Willis with “Frank Collins’ Works”
Friday, August 27, 2010, 12:30-1:30 pm

Bring your lunch; Limited seating; $5.00
Chapman Cultural Center, Moseley Building, 1st floor Meeting Room; 200 East St. John Street, Spartanburg, S.C. 29306
Reservations Requested: Reply to this email or 864–596-3501; njefferies@spartanburghistory.org

Dr. Jeffery Willis, Converse College Archivist and President of the Spartanburg County Historical Association, will discuss Collins’ life and work at the Spartanburg Regional History Museum’s Lunch & Learn, on August 27, 2010, 12:30 until 1:30. James Frank Collins was perhaps Spartanburg’s leading architect during the first half of the twentieth century. Many of the beautiful homes and public buildings he designed still stand, offering glimpses into one of the most dynamic periods in Spartanburg’s history. Dr. Willis will focus on the history related to Collins’ architecture. Mr. Collins designed several prominent houses in the Converse Heights neighborhood, such as the James Byrnes home on Otis Boulevard. The houses feature a range of historical styles, from Georgian and Greek revival to English Tudor and Dutch Colonial. Dr. Willis said, “He left quite a lasting mark.”

Here’s another good upcoming event in the Spartanburg area: This time it’s at the Price House!

The Thomas Price House, built in 1795 at a critical north-south road junction in lower Spartanburg County, is a product both of the vision and financial commitment of the founders of the Spartanburg County Historical Association (SCHA). In 1969, the association purchased not only the site of the homestead, but also 101 surrounding acres of farmland as a future public green space and outdoor educational center. In the last few years, SCHA has worked with the Spartanburg Area Conservancy (SPACE) to place all of the Price House property under a permanent conservation easement.

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I don’t know how many of our readers are in Florida, or may be able to head there for a workshop (it would be nice….)

Anyway, I received this – seating is listed as limited so I don’t know it may already be booked, but if you’re interested here are the details:

“Oral History 101”

August 23-25, 2010 9:00am-4:00pm

Instructor: Doug Boyd, Ph.D.

Director of Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History

University of Kentucky Libraries

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES:

By the end of the workshop, participants will:

• Gain an overall understanding of oral history in an archival context.

• Get practical experience in oral history interviewing and related aspects of oral history such as archiving, transcribing, editing, and publishing oral histories in a variety of environments including libraries, archives and museums.

• Establish a fundamental knowledge in the technologies of recording, preservation, and publication of oral history interviews.

• Gain a familiarity of the practical and theoretical underpinnings of oral history.

Registration Information:

$75 per participant, Seating is limited so reserve now!

Location:

Nova Southeastern University

Alvin Sherman Library

3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33314-1013

To Register Contact:

Elizabeth Lowman, Oral History Coordinator, for registration

elizabethlowman@semtribe.com, 863-902-1113 x. 12210

This is another event sponsored in part by the Spartanburg Historical Association…

The Spartanburg County Historical Association, The Spartanburg History Hub, and Wofford College cordially invite you and your friends to meet Dr. Eric Emerson, Director of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

We plan to discuss the agency’s mission, the services that its offers, and the challenges that it faces in the future.

5:30 p.m., Monday, August 23, 2010
The Montgomery Room, Burwell Building
Wofford College (864) 597-4182
429 North Church Street
Spartanburg, SC 29303

No RSVPs are required; casual attire.
The meeting will last approximately one hour.
Latecomers arriving from work are welcome.

The Historic Seay house is open this Saturday (tomorrow) to the public.

Saturday at The Seay House
August 21, 2010
10:00-4:00

Join us this Saturday at The Seay House, Spartanburg’s oldest home. Located at 106 Darby Road just off Crescent Avenue, this home showcases the dwelling of a local farmstead managed and maintained by three maiden Seay sisters in the late 1800s. Come relax for an hour or two on this historic property! Visit www.spartanburghistory.org, email seayhouse@spartanburghistory.org, or call 864-596-3501 for more information.

The Seay House is open by appointment year-round and on the 3rd Saturday of the summer months except July. Sponsors allow us to open at no charge to the public, though visitor donations help us maintain the property. Special thanks to Linda Bilanchone for sponsoring August’s Saturday at the Seay House. The Seay House is one of 3 historic homes maintained by the Spartanburg County Historical Association.

General Information:
The Seay House is the oldest house in the city limits of Spartanburg. Although a definite construction date for the log portion has not been established, evidence indicates that it was built prior to 1850. Two of the frame additions made to the home in the late 19th century still remain. The oldest portion of the house is a typical Scots-Irish, one room, one-and-a-half story, log house. The logs are hand-hewn, and the foundation is fieldstone. The pipestem chimney, also made of fieldstone, is a style commonly found in Virginia but unusual for upstate South Carolina.

The Seay House is a modest home and reflects the kind of life that the majority of the settlers in Spartanburg County and the Carolina Backcountry lived. Interpretation at the Seay House focuses on the lives of women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was a farmstead, and the three daughters of Kinsman Seay – Ruthy, Patsy, and Sarah – who lived in this house up to the times of their deaths lived a simple farm life. While today this home is largely surrounded by a modern neighborhood, when you step onto the grounds you can begin to imagine what it must have been like to live without electricity or running water, to grow and raise your own food, and to make your own clothing.

This looks like an eventful weekend in the Spartanburg area…. this is scheduled for the 14th and 15th of August (this weekend!)

History Comes Alive at Musgrove Mill State Historic Site

CLINTON – Musgrove Mill State Historic Site will host its Anniversary Celebration on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 14-15. Reenactors and historians from around the Southeast will demonstrate what it was like to live and fight in the South during the American Revolution.

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Tomorrow (August 14th) at 5PM in Duncan Park there will be a re-dedication of a 100 year old monument….

Children of the Confederacy
South Carolina Division
and
Sons of Confederate Veterans
and
Oliver E. Edwards Chapter 1998
United Daughters of the Confederacy
will present a

100 year Monument Re-dedication

August 14, 2010
5:00 p.m.
Duncan Park

This monument was originally dedicated August 17 – 19 , 1910, when the cornerstone was laid.. It was erected in honor of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors from Spartanburg City and County. The erection of this forty-foot monument was was sponsored by the Spartan Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The Monument is now located in front of the American Legion Hall in Duncan Park, Spartanburg, S.C.

All interested persons are welcome to attend this Re-dedication.

This Friday, August 13th (Tonight!) Gates open at 7:30….

Contact: Zac Cunningham, Director
Walnut Grove Plantation & Historic Price House
864-576-6546 (o), 864-576-4058 (f)
walnutgrove@spartanburghistory,org
pricehouse@spartanburghistory.org

Historic Price House Offers Friday Campfire Focused on Frontier Religion.

Woodruff, SC, August 6, 2010 — Bring the family, gather ‘round the fire, toast marshmallows, and hear exciting stories of the Upstate’s past! The Spartanburg County Historical Association’s third Friday Campfire of the season is on Friday, August 13. Mike Justiss of Tryon will discuss “Loyalty, Faith, and Rebellion: Religion in the Southern Colonies during the American Revolution” while portraying a traveling Methodist preacher from the late 1700s. This month’s campfire takes place at Historic Price House located at 1200 Oak View Farms Road near Woodruff. Gates open at 7:30 p.m. for self-guided tours of the site and the campfire program begins at 8:30 p.m. Admission is adults $5.00; ages 6-17 $3.00; ages 5 & under free and includes s’mores and cold drinks. Bring lawn chairs and/or blankets. Bug spray encouraged. The event is rain or shine!

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I hinted last week that there was another sister site on the way. Well, today the Alabama Genealogy site officially launched. You’ll notice that for now we have the same layout as here. As we have here, we have built pages for each county (67) in the state of Alabama with a profile and resources. Of course, there is more work to be done there, here and at the North Carolina Genealogy and Rhode Island Genealogy sites, but there are other sites on the way as well, although it may be a little while before the next official opening.

This is coming up tomorrow – 11am to 4PM at Walnut Grove Plantation!

Walnut Grove Plantation to Hold Colonial Gardening Day on July 24.

Roebuck, SC, July 19 — The corn fields, wheat fields, and vegetable gardens of 18th-century Backcountry farms and plantations served as crucial food sources for settlers. Walnut Grove Plantation’s Colonial Gardening Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 24 relives the days when frontier farmers and aspiring planters had to grow their own food! Tim Foster, Walnut Grove’s gardener, and his assistant gardeners will share plants, techniques, and tastes of the colonial-era garden.

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