Giles County Historical Society Receives Grant for Oral History Project

The Community Foundation of the New River Valley has selected the Giles County Historical Society as one of its 2012 fall grant recipients. The grant, totaling $826.39, will provide recording, transcribing and storage equipment for the Historical Society's Oral History Project. The Community Foundation funds a variety of projects across the New River Valley, believing the modest grants like this can have tremendous impact on local communities. This fall the foundation awarded over $45,000 to local non-profits. The grant to the Historical Society comes from the CFNRV's Giles Fund - resources raised by Giles citizens to be shared with Giles communities.

The Historical Society has three oral history projects planned for the coming year: Giles County Quilt Documentation, Public School Desegregation, and "Voices from Giles County." Quilt documentation is an on-going project to photograph, measure, and record quilts made in the locality before 1999.

The Public School Desegregation project will be the first time this historic period has been examined in Giles County. In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled that state law mandating separate schools for black and white students were unconstitutional, paving the way for desegregation of the public schools. Unlike many other Virginia counties which followed the course of "massive resistance," the Giles County school board voted to voluntarily end racial segregation in the county schools. Historical Society volunteers are now conducting background research and identifying interviewees for this project. Tentative informants include members of the local African American community, former students at the segregated high school at Bluff City, students enrolled in Giles High School in 1964-5, and former teachers and administrators in the school system.

For the "Voices from Giles County" project, county residents will be interviewed about growing up and living in Giles County. The project will initially focus on older residents, and areas of interest will include childhood and family life on the farm and in town, education, employment (particularly at the Celanese plant), and historic events affecting county residents, such as the Great Depression, World War II, desegregation/civil rights, and Vietnam. "Voices" will be an
on-going oral history project for the Historical Society

"Christmas by Candlelight" group picture.

"Christmas by Candlelight" held at Andrew Johnston house pictures

Entering the Johnston house
Ladies dressed in Civil War period clothing enter the Andrew Johnston house as part of the "Christmas by Candlelight" event hosted by the Giles Historical Society.

Christmas Carols

Members of the Giles Symphonic Chorale sang Christmas carols during the "Christmas by Candlelight" event hosted by the Giles Historical Society.

Decorated Table



This table was decorated as part of the "Christmas by Candlelight" festivities hosted by the Giles Historical Society at the Andrew Johnston house.







Posing



Period clothes from the Civil War era were worn during the "Christmas by Candlelight" event held at the Andrew Johnston house. Featured is Amy Buchanan of Narrows, VA.
































Canon with cannon





Canon Tabor, along with his father Bob Tabor, poses with an 1861 civil war cannon that was on display during the "Christmas by Candlelight" event hosted by the Giles Historical Society Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011.

Christmas by Candlelight hosted by Giles Historical Society December 3rd

We would like to thank everyone who came out to see The Civil War Christmas by Candlelight. It was a great success. We would like to thank all the ladies who fixed all the wonderful refreshments. Also, we would like to thank the Giles High School Choral Ensemble who sang all those wonderful christmas songs. We also want to thank the ladies of the Jubal Early Chapter of the UDC for helping out. Tha...nk you to Bob Tabor for bringing the canon to the event and Melinda and son for being in the house celebrating. We also want to thank all the ladies who helped out in the gift shop and the museum. Thank you so much for Joseph Yost who also was in the house. We had a great turn out and we really appreciate all the support. HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!!!

Christmas by Candlelight hosted by Giles Historical Society December 3rd

Early portrayal of Santa Claus

In this Harper's Weekly illustration of Christmas, 1862, cartoonist Thomas Nast presents one of the earliest portrayals of Santa Claus. Santa visits a Union encampment bringing boxes of gifts for the troops. In the background soldiers amuse themselves by climbing a greased pole, chasing a greased pig and playing football.

Christmas Eve, 1862

In this magazine engraving entitled"Christmas Eve, 1862" a young mother kneels by her sleeping children and prays for her husband's safety, while he sits by a campfire and gazes at their photographs. on the upper left is an early portrayal of Santa Claus, preparing to climb down a chimney; on the upper right he visits a military camp, tossing boxes of gifts from his sleigh.

Christmas by Candlelight, 1861

It's a chilly evening on Chrismas Eve, 1861: flurries of snow whip down Pearisburg's Main Street. Dr. Harvey Green Johnston is home on leave from his duties as surgeon of the 86th Virginia Militia. His young wife Annie and their two small children, William and Carrie, have decorated the house for the special occasion, and have invited several friends to celebrate the holiday and recent Confederate victories. The beautiful brick house, built by Harvey's father Andrew in 1829, glows with candlelight and it filled with the aroma of pine, lemon teacakes, mulled cider and eggnog. Carolers from the neighborhood have stopped by to offer and extra measure of good cheer.

This Saturday, December 3, 2011, the Giles County Historical Society invites you to join the Johnstons as they gather to enjoy the holiday with family and friends. Ladies of the Jubal Early chapter of the UDC will greet you at the door and invite you into the house decorated with all the mid-nineteenth century. Members of the Giles High School Choral Ensemble, dressed in period costume, will entertain visitors with traditional carols.

The Johnston home, located at 208 North Main Street in Pearisburg, will be open from 3:00- 6:00 p.m. Admission is free.

Visitors can also view the new exhibit "The Civil Was in Giles County" in the adjacent Historical Museum. The displays describe the course and impact of the war in the county, and includes artifacts recovered in the area, as well as personal stories and memorabilia of Giles County soldiers.

By 1861, the celebration of Christmas had taken on the look and customs of the holiday we celebrate today. Forty years earlier the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas" appeared in a New York newspaper and introduced us to our modern idea of Santa Claus: a jolly, chubby "old elf" who ddrives a sleigh pulled by reindeer. With a sack loaded with presents he drops down the chimney and fills the stockings hung by the fireplace. Two decades later Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert popularized the candle-lit Christmas tree, a custom from his native Germany. In 1850, an illustration of the royal family gathered around a decorated Christmas tree appeared in an American magazine and the custom was euthusiastically adopted here. Trees were usually decorated with garlands of dried berries, popcorn or paper chains, and hung with fruit, toys, and paper ornaments.

During the Civil War Christmas was a bittersweet holiday. Many sons, husbands, and fathers were far from home, often living in primitive conditions in cold, damp winter camps. In the early years of the war families were able to maintain many of the old customs, and to provide "care packages" for their loved ones in the military. As the war dragged on and the Union blockade of Confederate ports strangled Southern commerce, most Southerners had neither the means nor the heart to participate in elaborate festivities. Many years later a Southern woman remembered the 1864 holiday: "Christmas loomed darkly ahead. No daddy, no trip to "Grampys", no shoes, no clothes hardly, no picture books, no dolls, no candy, and no just "nuthin". Her one gift was a homemade wool petticoat-carded, spun and woven by an aunt- that was so scratchy it was unwearable.

During that same Christmas holiday a Northern magazine featured an elaborate engraving of President Lincoln welcoming rebels who are willing to lay down their arms, to "The Union Christmas Dinner". The illustration, on view at the Johnston house, foreshadows the sentiments of Lincoln's second inaugural address the following March, where he spoke of peace and reconciliation: "With malice towards none: with charity for all...let us strive ... to bind up the nation's wounds ... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace.... Lincoln was assassinated less than a month later.

The Giles County Historical Society works to preserve, interpret and exhibit Giles County's rich historical and cultural heritage.

It provides a repository for Giles County family histories, documents, and artifacts, assists genealogical researchers, and supports the preservation of endangered the Giles County artifacts, sites, and records.

The Giles County Historical Society and Museum (921-1050) are open Wed-Fri from 12-5 PM and Sat-Sun from 2-5 PM. The Research Office is open on Thurs. from 12-5 PM. For more information please visit http://www.gilescountyhistorical.org/

"A Civil War Christmas by Candlelight"

Please come by and join us on December 3rd, 2011 from 3-6 p.m. We are having "A Civil War Christmas by Candlelight" at the Andrew Johnston House. We would love for you to stop in to meet Dr. Harvey Green Johnston, his lovely young wife Annie, and their friends as they gather together on Christmas Eve in 1861. Come and enjoy the period music, refreshments, the Victorian Christmas decorations, and the wonderful Christmas carols from the Giles High School Choral Ensemble. We will also have our new exhibit "The Civil War in Giles County" that is displayed in the museum that is available to be viewed. If you have any questions about the event, please feel free to call the historical society at (540)921-1050.

Terri Fisher is first speaker in lecture series at the Historical Society

The Giles County Historical Society is launching evening lecture series, to be held once a month at the Giles County Historical Museum, 208 North Main Street, Pearisburg. Each month a featured speaker will discuss a topic relating to local history, genealogy research, historic preservation, personal memoir writing and other subjects.

The inaugural lecture will be given by the Historical Society's former Executive Director, Terri Fisher, on Thursday, November 3, at 7:00 p.m. Terri will discuss her recently published book Lost Commununities of Virginia, now in its second printing. The book is a project of Virginia Tech's Community Design Assistance Center where Terri is Outreach and Programs Coordinator.

Lost Communities of Virginia casts a spotlight on 30 small communities located throughout the state. These once-thriving towns, villages and gathering places provide quiet reminders of rural Virginia's past when trains or steamboats stopped several times a day, coal miners frequented the company store, stagecoaches delivered passengers and their many trunks to the mountain springs resorts, and traveling entertainers brought excitement on a summer evening. The book's contemporary photographs, the words of long-time residents, historical information and maps bring these "lost communities" alive to the reader's imagination.

Among other topics, the author will discuss the Victorian heyday of Eggleston Springs resort, and the once-bustling transportation hub of Newport, which in earlier days was so rowdy that it was dubbed "Hell's Half Acre." Other nearby towns in the book include Paint Bank, Riner and Pocahontas.

Terri holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science fro the University of New Hampshire and is nearing completion of a Masters of Architecture at Virginia Tech. Her interests are in the area of preservation and sustainable design and she is also the author of two pictorial histories of Giles County: Pearisburg and Giles County: Then and Now.

The Giles County Historical Society works to preserve, interpret and exhibit Giles County's rich historical and cultural heritage. It provides a repository for Giles County family histories, documents and artifacts, assists, genealogical researchers, and supports the preservation of endangered Giles County artifacts, sites and records.

Terri Fisher, Outreach and Programs Coordinator of Virginia Tech's Community Design Assistance Center is the author of this recently-published book that document's once-booming communities that lost their original function and now seek a new purpose.

Giles County Historical Society and Museum Admission: Free

Wed. -Fri. 12-5

Sat. - Sun. 2-5

Research Office Open only Thurs. 12-5

http://www.gilescountyhistorical.org/ (540)921-1050