Virginia's Endangered Historic Family Cemeteries

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, July 14, 2010

Preservation Virginia recently announced their 2010 Most Endangered Historic Sites List. These are buildings and archaeological sites across the Commonwealth that face imminent or sustained threats to their integrity or survival. Included in the list are Historic Family Cemeteries Across the Commonwealth: “Cemeteries are among the most valuable of historic genealogical resources. Rural (and urban) family cemeteries can also provide an abundance of information through the study of gravestones and grave marker designs, cemetery landscapes and religious and mortuary practices and can provide information on rural Virginia settlement patterns and the ethnic character of the residents of an area. While much can be gained through the study of historic cemeteries, the major significance of these sites lies in the fact that they are sacred. The graves help to perpetuate the memories of the deceased and the remains of the people buried there should be treated with the utmost respect and dignity. Development and neglect continue to create an urgent threat to these sacred sites across the Commonwealth.”

For genealogists visiting the Giles County Historical Society, cemeteries provide an invaluable resource. Finding a long-sought grave marker for a family member often provides an integral piece to a family tree. The marker itself may provide birth, death, and marriage information. The location of the cemetery provides key information about where the family lived. Other grave markers in the cemetery may provide information about marriages, births, deaths, and unknown siblings, aunts, uncles, and other relatives.

Giles County has a number of family cemeteries, many of which are listed in the Giles County History – Families books. Undoubtedly, there are other family cemeteries in the County, today grown up with weeds or missing their grave markers that tell stories of earlier settlers to the county. Care of family cemeteries can help remove them from the Most Endangered List. The Pearis Cemetery and Chapman Cemetery are historic Giles County cemeteries that have recently been in the news for their restoration projects.

For more information about cemetery preservation in Virginia, contact Preservation Virginia (www.preservationvirginia.org) or the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (www.dhr.virginia.gov).

Historical Society Receives Celanese Coning Machine

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, July 7, 2010

The Celco plant in Narrows has been an important industry in Giles County since the plant opened on Christmas Day in 1939. Celanese Acetate has been an economic driver requiring housing, businesses, and amenities to be built for plant workers throughout the county. Production at the Celco plant has shifted over the years as markets have changed. One of the products that the plant no longer makes is acetate yarn for manufacturing fabrics.

In 1905, Swiss brothers, Camille and Henri Dreyfus, were the first to develop a commercial manufacturing process for cellulose acetate, which could be used to make films, fibers, molded objects, and toilet articles. In the 1920s, acetate fiber was first spun in Cumberland, Maryland and a weaving mill was built to turn the acetate yarn into cloth. The Celanese name first appeared at this time as well, a combination of the words “cellulose” and “ease” for the ease of wearing the acetate fabric. The name was a marketing tactic, as the silk market worked hard to discredit the new fabric.

Acetate had several qualities that were superior to silk, including the ability to hold permanent moiré designs and pleating. These qualities revolutionized the dress industry, influencing fashions of the time. Later acetate was woven with silk, cotton, wool, and other fibers to provide wrinkle-free, quick-drying clothing at a reasonable price.

Celanese recently donated a coning machine and several bobbins of Celanese acetate yarn, including the last one to be spun at the Celco plant. According to John Kinney, Jr.: “Installed in the 1940s, coning machines manufactured a filling yarn, used between sheets of yarn from Celco bobbins. Some of the U.S. textile companies that purchased cones from Narrows were Satkin Mills, Burlington/New River Mills, Woodhall Mills, and National Velvet. Most U.S. textile manufacturers went out of business, beginning in the 1990s, due to foreign competition. This also led to ending coning production at Celco.”

Look for the Celco coning machine to be part of a new textile exhibit later this summer in the Historical Society’s Museum!

Wabash Band Drum Donation

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, June 30, 2010

The Giles County Historical Society received the donation of a snare drum used by Charles H. Habernigg in the Wabash Band at the annual Habernigg family reunion on June 19th in Pembroke. The Wabash Band was organized in 1884 and featured the talents of local community members who played marches and concert band music typical of the time. Before radio and television, concert bands were popular entertainment where people could socialize and hear the latest music.

The Wabash Band was well-known in Southwest Virginia and played at many county fairs, political affairs, and other events. Band members wore gold-trimmed green uniforms and traveled in a horse-drawn wagon, highly decorated with the Wabash Band name on the sides. The band was lead by J. S. Eaton for over 50 years and usually had about 12 members with local family names like Eaton, Stafford, Anderson, Hedrick, Brown, Jones, Peck, Robertson, Meadows, King, Dehart, Habernigg, Fanin, and Wright.

The drum used by Charles H. Habernigg was donated by his granddaughter, Betty Harless Lynch of Aldie, Virginia, in honor of her aunt, Mrs. Georgia H. Williams, the last living child of Mr. Habernigg. The presentation of the drum to the Historical Society was made at the annual Habernigg reunion where relatives ranging from Mr. Habernigg’s daughter through great great great grandchildren were present. The drum will complement other Wabash Band instruments and memorabilia already on display at the Historical Society. Look for an improved Wabash Band exhibit including the Habernigg drum in the Historical Society’s museum in August.

Virginia Association of Museum Fundamentals and Collections Forums

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, June 23, 2010

The Giles County Historical Society is a member of the Virginia Association of Museums (VAM). VAM (www.vamuseums.org) has over 1,000 members focused in the Virginia and Washington, DC area and brings together this museum community to further education and training, foster development, and provide support for museums and museum staff. For small museums with small budgets, like the Historical Society, the support of VAM and the expertise available to us through its many members and staff is invaluable.

Last week, VAM offered a 3-day Fundamentals Forum and Collections “Boot Camp” at Virginia Tech that Historical Society staff members were fortunate enough to attend. Classes were taught by Virginia museum professionals with many years of expertise as executive directors, curators, exhibit designers, grant writers, museum educators, and jacks-of-all-trades. Many were from small museums with small staffs and small budgets and were familiar with the many jobs each of us must perform everyday to keep a museum running. Topics in the Fundamentals Forum included daily museum operations, outreach and partnerships, annual fund and membership, school programs, technology and social media, financial management, volunteer management, and others. The Collections “Boot Camp” included hands-on exercises working with collection items including a trip to the Virginia Tech Museum of Geosciences, exhibit design, and less glamorous topics such as creating a collections policy, archives management, and deaccessioning.

The VAM Fundamentals Forum and Collections “Boot Camp” were made possible through a generous grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) and the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS). Both of these organizations have been under increasing scrutiny as state and federal budgets are tightened. However, their support was crucial for making this program possible and affordable for small institutions like the Giles County Historical Society to attend and experience an unforgettable and intense educational and networking opportunity that will ultimately strengthen our organization and move us closer to our goal of creating a professional 21st century museum.

Virginia Time Travelers Program

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, June 16, 2010

Are you planning a summer vacation that includes visiting Virginia museums and historic sites? Come by the Giles County Historical Society to get your copy of the TimeTravelers Passport Guide. The TimeTravelers program of the Virginia Association of Museums encourages children and adults to visit the many historic and cultural resources that Virginia has to offer. Participating museums stamp the passports. Once the passport has 6 stamps, you can become an official Virginia TimeTraveler and receive a certificate and embroidered patch.

For 2010, the program features an expanded Passport Guide that is, in itself, a souvenir of travels throughout the state. Over 100 museums are represented in the 40 page glossy book with photographs, descriptions, contact information, and a place for the passport stamp. If your plans include visits to Mount Vernon, Monticello, Colonial Williamsburg, the Virginia Historical Society, or the Virginian State Capitol, you’ll be on your way to completing your passport. If you are venturing to Roanoke to visit the Taubman Museum of Art, the O. Winston Link Museum, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, or the History Museum of Western Virginia, they will stamp your passport as well.

Even if you already have your TimeTravelers Passport Guide and are looking for an extra stamp, stop by the Historical Society. We are listed under the New River Heritage Coalition (www.newriverheritage.org), a cooperative formed by the museums of the New River Valley to share expertise, create a cohesive picture of life in the New River Valley, and collaborate on marketing efforts. Make visiting Virginia museums and historic sites part of your summer vacation!