freestateofpatrick.com blog

The Patrick County Oral History Project or it’s official title Patrick County: Continuity and Change in a Rural Community began in February 1979 at an informal discussion about doing oral history in Patrick County and evolved into the project between the Patrick County Branch of the Blue Ridge Regional Library and Reynolds Homestead’s Continuing Education Center. The resulting 202 cassettes containing 102 interviews of over 300 hours partially transcribed reside in the Patrick County Branch of the Blue Ridge Regional Library and the Special Collections Department of the Carol M. Newman Library at Virginia Tech. The project resulted in a film Up and Down Those Roads in 1982 directed and written by Elizabeth Fine with cinematography by Jerry Scheeler. The documentary features Patrick Countians Ruth Jane Bolt, Jim Shelor, Lynn Foddrell, Posey Foddrell, John D. Hooker, Dorn Spangler, students at Meadows of Dan Elementary School and others. Slide programs and a guide to library materials were produced. This material resides in the Special Collections at Virginia Tech. A more detailed description of the holdings follows in this guide. Materials from the guide to this collection follow at the end of this document. A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities sponsored by the Patrick County Branch of the Blue Ridge Regional Library and Virginia Tech through the Reynolds Homestead titled “The Free State of Patrick: The County and It’s People” provided three years of funding “To engage Patrick County’s adults in recording and preserving a history of the county. To increase community use of the humanities resources of the library and the Reynolds Homestead. To provide primary materials for future research.” This page contains several NEW resources for those interested in using the materials of the Patrick County Oral History Project. Below is a guide with details on using the materials at the Patrick County Branch of the Blue Ridge Regional Library and Special Collections at Virginia Tech. Frank Adams describes Patrick County, Virginia, where “Appalachia meets Piedmont.” The purpose of this guide is to reawaken interest in a forgotten resource on Patrick County history. This web page gives the names of those interviewed along with information such as the interviewer and date of the interviews and whether transcriptions are available. The indexes for subject and name are included for the first time. I transcribed the subject indexes from 3×5 cards located in three boxes at Virginia Tech. Only half of the interviews were transcribed and the index reflects only the transcribed materials. Not needing a government grant to preserve Patrick County’s history in 2005, I prepared these three resources about the interviews and the subject matter. Included for the first time are the name and subject indexes for the project, which have languished on 3×5 index cards for twenty years in three boxes at Special Collections at Virginia Tech virtually unknown and unused.

Here is my webpage about the Patrick County Oral History Project

http://www.freestateofpatrick.com/pcoralhistoryproject.htm

Hardcover: 256 pages

Publisher: Sterling (June 1, 2007)

ISBN-10: 1402739427

ISBN-13: 978-1402739422

Two photos you will not see in my Images of America: Henry County Virginia are these two from Weird Virginia. The Wedding Cake House in Martinsville and the Bus Grave Yard in Bassett, Virginia, from Henry County are the only photos from Henry County. This book is a fun read. Patrick County’s “Weirdness” comes from the Fairystone.

Thirty years ago this summer on July 20, 1978, Dennis Stockton picked up Kenneth Wayne Arnder near Mount Airy in Surry County, North Carolina, and carried him to Kibler Valley in Patrick County, Virginia. Five days later law enforcement found a decomposed body of a man near Mount Airy with his hands cut off, a bullet wound between his eyes wearing a shirt that said, “How Do You Spell Relief…Colombian Gold.” The latter an obvious reference to smoking marijuana. This is one of the most bizarre and controversial murders of our region. While perusing the shelves of Page’s Bookstore in Mount Airy I came across Dead Run: The Shocking Story of Dennis Stockton and Life on Death Row in America by Joe Jackson and William F. Burke, Jr. I was seventeen that summer between my junior and senior year at Patrick County High School working at Oakdale Knitting Company on second shift in the dye house when not driving up and down Lebanon Street talking to girls and listening to Cheap Trick, Peter Frampton or Pink Floyd’s The Wall. I had no idea how rough the under current of the area was until I read this book. It paints a very bleak picture of our region. Here is a quote about Mount Airy. “It was the hometown of Andy Griffith, but the Surry County mill town was a far cry from TV’s gentle Mayberry. Dubbed ‘Little Chicago’ for its criminal element, Mount Airy had a mean streak, a culture of outlawry living on its margins.” Stuart, Virginia, gets off with the same sort of treatment. The book states, “Stuart, municipal seat of Patrick County, Virginia is a small town of colonial and Greek Revival architecture and dogwood lined streets that prides itself on tradition and Virginia gentility…’Stuart is a different world than Mount Airy,’ said Tom Joyce managing editor of The Mount Airy News. ‘ People there don’t question authority…If officials say something’s true, it must be.’” The book, written by two Norfolk reporters, in my opinion is so anti-death penalty that the crime and victim were irrelevant to the “innocence” of Dennis Stockton. They claim that Patrick County officials covered up evidence of Stockton’s innocence to advance their political careers. Stockton claimed he gave them letters from “prominent citizens” implicating them in criminal behavior. While I am all for believing anything bad about the “darn bunch in Stuart,” I doubt this knowing these two men and their service to Patrick County that this is not a serious allegation. Those involved and quoted in this book, some who interviewed Stockton over other crimes are quoted in the book saying, “Dennis would someday end up in the gas chamber.” Born in October 1940, Stockton moved to Surry County, where he claimed the New York Yankees scouted him as a pitcher, but his career as a criminal began passing bad checks. Prisoner 134466 spent half his life on Death Row. The book is about one-half about Stockton’s life in Virginia’s prisons awaiting execution and about half about the murder of Arnder. Stockton was the first to complain about the condition of Patrick County’s jail and filed a lawsuit about it thirty years before the present situation. Virginia executed Stockton via lethal injection on September 27, 1995. As for the book, Pages has other copies, but I would read it with a grain of salt. Researching the book was difficult due to the lack of an index. This is not a pretty part of our local history, but it is part of it.

The Bassett Historical Center building fund is now at $400,000 towards $800,000 to expand our regional history library. Although as a rule, I do not believe in asking for government assistance believing that if people want to raise money they should do as I did to save the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace get out there, beat the bushes, and “beg for money.” Many months ago, Pat Ross asked me to contact Congressman Virgil Goode about funding for the library expansion. So with Ronnie Stone (Chairperson of the Building Fund) drove down to Danville for an enjoyable afternoon and met with Virgil. On July 29, 2008, Virgil and Congressman Rick Boucher presented the Bassett Historical Center Building Fund $98,000 from a HUD (Housing and Urban Development) Grant I would like to share the comments I made that day on my blog. After pointing out to Rick Boucher that for me to be in long pants and a golf shirt took an “act of congress.” I usually wear t-shirt, shorts and sandals while working at the library. We will have another symposium on October 4. Arcadia Publishing will release Images of America: Henry County Virginia in March 2009 with all proceeds going to the expansion of the library. As I do not only talk the talk I put my money where my mouth is and I think that will put my efforts for the Bassett Historical Center over $100,000. It is nice to be on a winning team.

http://www.bassetthistoricalcenter.com/

Above, photo of Rick Boucher, Virgil Goode, Judy Mattox and Tom Perry, who with Ronnie Stone contacted Goode originally about funding.

The Bassett Historical Center’s building fund received $98,000 in federal funds thanks to a bipartisan effort by U.S. Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and Virgil Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount. Both Goode and Boucher were at the center Tuesday to present the federal appropriation that will help pay to double the space and add amenities such as a meeting room and an audio/visual station at the center. The expansion also will include new display cases and shelving to house materials, said Boucher, who represents the 9th District. “The shelves are running over. We have books that are not able to be put up” because the shelves are overflowing, said Ronnie Stone, chairperson of the building committee. The center is in the 4,100-square-foot space that formerly housed the Bassett Public Library. The library now is across the street, and the center are branches of the Blue Ridge Regional Library system. The historical center “is the repository of items such as histories of Bassett and Henry County” as well as Patrick County, Boucher said. Goode, who represents the 5th District, said not all of its users are from the Henry, Patrick and Franklin county areas. Visitors “come from all over. … I don’t know how much tourism has increased because of this center, but I know it’s been a lot,” Goode said. According to Stone, visitors to the center stay in local hotels, eat in local restaurants and buy fuel to travel to areas of interest. In 1992, the center logged 420 visitors, Stone said, and at the end of fiscal year 2007, that number had risen to 7,667 visitors, including 964 from Virginia. “A lot of those people were not from Henry County or Patrick County,” he said, adding that visitors from each of the 50 states and seven countries have visited the center. And with good reason, Goode said. The center preserves unique historical items, some of which “you can’t even find at the state library in Richmond,” Goode said. Manuscripts and family memorabilia also are housed at the center, which “has become an often-visited attraction … and a significant resource for those interested in genealogy,” Boucher said. Students, authors and amateur genealogists can find help with research at the center, he said, and “visitation to the center has increased by 125 percent for each of the past five years.” “Most of the people who live” in the region now may have ancestors who lived in this area before traveling west, Stone said. “They lived here for a while, and when things got a little crowded, they moved on west.” Information about their time here is cataloged at the center, included in the 11,900 reference and/or family books or listed in the more than 9,500 family files or more than 2,800 local history files, Stone said. The renovation is expected to cost a total of $800,000. Besides the federal funds, Henry County has contributed $25,000 and committed to contributing another $25,000 next year. Private donations total nearly $250,000, Boucher said, and “that is a remarkable accomplishment.”

http://www.bassetthistoricalcenter.com/

Photo of Rick Boucher, Virgil Goode, Judy Mattox and Tom Perry, who with Ronnie Stone contacted Goode originally about funding.

In the third week of April in 1865, two brothers sat at the elder’s home in Powhatan County, Virginia, speaking of their father and discussing editing his memoirs from the American Revolution. The other brother, Sydney, was not present, but all three were in a financial crisis due to the war. The brothers might have regretted selling their land in Patrick, Carroll and Floyd counties before the war. After the Revolutionary War, Buffalo Mountain was a part of a 16,000-acre tract of land known as Lee’s Order. This tract was a grant made to General Henry Lee (1756-1818) by the United States government for his service in the Revolutionary War. Henry Lee III attended Princeton with future president, James Madison, and served as a cavalry commander under George Washington during the American Revolution. Known for his swift movements and lightning attacks he earned the moniker of “Light Horse Harry.” After the war Lee served as Governor of Virginia, but land speculation led to a term in debtors’ prison and a very unhappy end for the man who said Washington was “First in War, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” After the death of his wife Ann Hill Carter Lee in 1829, the three brothers inherited the property. There were unpaid taxes and bills against the property, but the brothers kept the land. In 1846, two sold 16,300 acres in the three counties to Nathaniel Burwell of Roanoke County (Patrick County Deed Book 12 page 425) for $5,000. Originally surveyed as over 20,000 acres the Patrick portion was 6,268 near Hog Mountain crossing branches of the south fork of Rock Castle Creek, the Conner Spur Road and a fork of the Dan River. The Floyd portion was 7,143 and Carroll was 5,797 acres. Robert Edward Lee (1809-1870) known to history as the “Gray Fox,” commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the War Between The States, but his brothers are lesser known. Sydney Smith Lee (1802-1869) married the granddaughter of “Founding Father” George Mason, the Father of the Bill of Rights. He was the father of Jeb Stuart’s subordinate Fitzhugh Lee. Sydney Lee served in the navies of the United States and Confederate States of America. Beginning in 1820 with a midshipman’s commission in the U. S. Navy, he rose in rank serving as Commandant of the Naval Academy, commanding the Philadelphia Naval Yard and accompanying Mathew Perry on his expedition to Japan. He commanded the Norfolk Navy Yard and the Confederate Naval Academy at Drewry’s Bluff during the war. Considered very handsome, his brothers nicknamed him “Rose.” After the war, he farmed in Stafford County, Virginia, before dying suddenly in July 1869. Charles Carter Lee was born in 1798 and received a degree from Harvard in 1819. He lived a disjointed life as a New York City lawyer, land speculator, plantation owner in Mississippi until his marriage at age 49 to Lucy Penn Taylor. He lived on his wife’s inheritance, Windsor Forest, in Powhatan County prospering as a husband, father, farmer and writer, especially of poetry. Of the three Lee brothers, only Carter lived on the land in Floyd County. Papers supplied from the courthouse by the Honorable Gino Williams indicate that Carter tried to establish a grist mill on the land and that he was involved in legal dealings with Archibald Stuart, father of James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart. Tradition states he lived on the Buffalo Mountain property at one time in a home called Spring Camp and that he had a law office. Carter was last of Henry and Ann Lee’s children to die, but Robert may have summed up the ownership of the land in southwest Virginia and the plight of the three brothers after the war when he said, “It’s a hard case that out of so much land, none should be good for anything…”

I was pleased to assist in donating hotos for a new book about Patrick County History. Arcadia Publishing released Music Makers of the Blue Ridge on July 21, a pictorial history of musicians in five localities in Southwest Virginia, as the newest addition to its “Images of America” series. The soft-cover book contains more than 200 vintage and recent images of music making in Patrick, Floyd, Carroll and Grayson Counties and the city of Galax–the Blue Ridge Plateau. During the late 1920s, Ralph Peer and the Victor Recording Company visited the city of Bristol to look for new talent. They stumbled upon Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, two future legends of country music; however, other amazing musicians were unable to make the trip to Bristol for the auditions because of work and family obligations. For the locals, music was more than a way to earn fame and fortune; the music was part of the fabric of life in this rural environment. Some individuals did become famous, including the Stoneman Family, who recorded “The Ship That Didn’t Return/ The Titanic,” and Henry Whitter, who recorded “The Wreck of Old 97,” but that was never the focus. “The Wreck of the Old ‘97,’” “Caty Sage,” and “Freeda Bolt” were about a train wreck, a kidnapping, and a murder respectively. Music remains an integral part of the people’s lives today. The songs they played and created accompanied an entire generation through the Great Depression and World War II and into the vigorous growth of the 1950s and 1960s. All of these musicians influenced the birth, growth, and continued development of the Galax Fiddlers Convention, known around the world by old-time mountain music fans. For locals, music was more than a way to earn fame and fortune, according to a news release from Emily Higgins, publicity manager. The music was part of the fabric of life in this rural environment and the new book chronicles that history. The Blue Ridge Music Makers Guild Inc., a non-profit organization that comprises fans, composers, songwriters, performers, producers and instrument-makers, and is dedicated to the preservation of the old-time musical heritage of the Blue Ridge Plateau. The musicians of the Blue Ridge Plateau influenced the birth, growth, and continued development of mountain music and eventually, the Galax Fiddlers’ Convention, known around the world by old-time mountain music fans,” the news release states. The book depicts the traditional music from its beginnings to today’s musicians who carry on the tradition, and points out that because of separation by distance and topography, they often developed their own distinctive fiddle and banjo styles sometimes found in areas only twenty miles apart. The pictorial history also stresses the importance of instrument building. We found that many of the earlier music makers were also builders of their instruments because store-bought fiddles and banjos were too dear or because they liked what they could make better, the news release says. This encouraged artisanship of the highest quality in building different types of instruments. These artisans handed down this quality along with the music. The members of the Blue Ridge Music Makers Guild wanted to add images, memories and stories to the concept of the Crooked Road Heritage Music Trail, which includes the localities highlighted in the book. The local schoolhouses and churches made for ideal gathering places to share music as did homes as neighbors gathered to share the work of building or harvesting during the day and dancing and playing music in the evening, the news release states. As we wrote this book, we found the importance of capturing the stories that went with the pictures as family members or friends shared their treasured photos and experiences. We discovered that we were doing more of a service to the community than we had imagined when we first started this project. We were capturing moments and memories that could have been lost. The section on Patrick County contains the following introductory passages: Music runs through the veins of Patrick Countians. According to A Guide to the Crooked Road, Patrick County is one of the most productive music thickets in North America…Patrick County’s rich music heritage came with the first settlers, who brought along their folk ballads from Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and England; with Patrick Henry and his fiddle; and with hymns for worship, the section states. Gospel groups and choirs continue to perform in the community. People sang ballads about events that actually happened. Arcadia Publishing is “best known for its popular ‘Images of America’ series, which chronicles the history of communities from Bangor, Maine to Manhattan Beach, California,” the news release states “…Each title celebrates a town or region, bringing to life the people, places and events that defined the community.” The book will be available at area bookstores, independent retailers and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or www.arcadiapublishing.com. The price is $19.95 per copy.