My Great-Grandma Artman always had over-ripe bananas on her kitchen counter and a steady supply of banana bread. I and my cousins were in and out of her house, playing on her deep front porch, and laughing. She taught all of us to play 500 rummy and we played for hours at her little card table in the front room.
When one of us was sick and couldn’t go to school, we could still go next door to grandma’s and spend the day covered up on her couch. She would tell us stories sometimes of her father watching the Rebels march past the house in 1863. She told us how the people who owned the ‘chicken pie place’ across the street hid runaway slaves in the root cellar.
And a hundred other stories I struggle to remember now. I wish I’d paid more attention. I wish I’d asked more questions. I wish I’d known what questions to ask.
We are living through interesting times right now. It’s history. A moment in time historians will study for decades to come.
I’ve encouraged you all to explore and record your personal history and that of your family several times over the past 22 months. Confined, as we are, to our houses this may be the perfect time to get the box of old snapshots out and start labeling them.
Give mammaw and papaw a call and talk with them about their lives or the stories their grandparents told them.
This is important for all of us to do but there are some communities and families for which it is even more essential.
Members of the African American Historical and Genealogical Society recently met with museum staff to discuss increasing our understanding of black history in this region.
There are a dozen sources for history of whites in this region, from deeds to school records, to the newspaper. We have several collections of oral histories, personal memoirs, stacks of letters, and hundreds of collected family histories. These give us a clear window into the lives of those white families who lived and loved here.
Black families, however, are, for the most part, absent from most newspapers before the 1970s. Generally, unless they were accused of breaking the law, were well-known and respected or had done something remarkable their names never appeared in the paper, often identified by the use of ‘Uncle’ or ‘Aunt’ as a title.
“Uncle Noah Brown, one of Mt. Airy’s most highly respected colored citizens, died last night. Noah was quite old and had made this place his home since the war.” Mount Airy News, November 1899
When “Aunt Mary Bunker” passed in March 1903, the Mount Airy News specifically noted the former slave of the Bunker twins “had a number of friends among the white people of this city.”
We have the stories of some of the black families of the area because descendants have gathered the information and published it in various ways or shared it with the museum or one of the historical organizations of the area.
Dr. Evelyn Scales Thompson managed something few black families do. She has two lines of her family identified back to the white families who owned hers; the Mary Scales Plantation in Henry County, Virginia and the Dobson Plantation in Rockford, Surry County.
We want to know more of the rich family and business stories, the civic, school, and church leaders, from the black community here. Surry’s story is not complete without everyone’s story.
We hope that you will all, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, whatever your ethnicity or history, we hope you will take this opportunity to make sure your family stories … your history …. Is shared with the younger members of your family and preserved so it isn’t lost.
Pretty little girls all dressed in pink — but we don’t know who they are. This picture, which was likely taken in the 1950s, is part of the museum’s collection but we have no information about the circumstances of the picture or who any of the girls are. Do you recognize them? If you do or if you have pictures or history you’d like to share with us, please contact Amy Snyder, curator of the museum. Once things return to normal we’ll be able to scan loaned photos or documents so they are preserved for posterity.
https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_Girls-In-Pink.jpgPretty little girls all dressed in pink — but we don’t know who they are. This picture, which was likely taken in the 1950s, is part of the museum’s collection but we have no information about the circumstances of the picture or who any of the girls are. Do you recognize them? If you do or if you have pictures or history you’d like to share with us, please contact Amy Snyder, curator of the museum. Once things return to normal we’ll be able to scan loaned photos or documents so they are preserved for posterity.
Malachi “Buster” Jones was a pillar of the Mount Airy community for years. He worked “to improve the lives” of everyone around him, as his funeral booklet attests. He helped get water and lights at the JJ Jones High School, was instrumental in the creation of the Madoc Recreation Center, and was involved with many other civic organizations. He worked for decades to get his son’s posthumous Purple Heart awarded and we are fortunate enough to have many items in our collection from him including this picture of a “McCloud couple” taken in 1905. We don’t know, however, who they are. His parents were Luther and Minnie (McCloud) Jones. Is this them? Or, perhaps, others in the family?
https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_McClouds-1905.jpgMalachi “Buster” Jones was a pillar of the Mount Airy community for years. He worked “to improve the lives” of everyone around him, as his funeral booklet attests. He helped get water and lights at the JJ Jones High School, was instrumental in the creation of the Madoc Recreation Center, and was involved with many other civic organizations. He worked for decades to get his son’s posthumous Purple Heart awarded and we are fortunate enough to have many items in our collection from him including this picture of a “McCloud couple” taken in 1905. We don’t know, however, who they are. His parents were Luther and Minnie (McCloud) Jones. Is this them? Or, perhaps, others in the family?
This is one of the most striking photos we have, in my opinion. Printed from a glass negative in our collection, this crisp portrait of a black woman from White Plains and her nine children in the early 1900s raises so many questions I want the answers to, not the least of which is how did she get all those kids to sit still long enough to have their picture made? I hope someday we’ll be able to learn their story.
https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_White-Plains-1900s-Family-from-Glass-Negative.jpgThis is one of the most striking photos we have, in my opinion. Printed from a glass negative in our collection, this crisp portrait of a black woman from White Plains and her nine children in the early 1900s raises so many questions I want the answers to, not the least of which is how did she get all those kids to sit still long enough to have their picture made? I hope someday we’ll be able to learn their story.
Two wooden shanties used to sit on a ridge near the entrance to the granite quarry called Misery Hill. Home to black families into the mid-1900s when this photo was taken, they overlooked Mount Airy. Many believe they were originally built as slave cabins. An unidentified man and three children can be seen at the cabin. Flat Rock Presbyterian Church, which sits at the at the entrance to the North Carolina Granite Quarry, can be seen in the distance.
https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_Cabins-4-w-Man.jpgTwo wooden shanties used to sit on a ridge near the entrance to the granite quarry called Misery Hill. Home to black families into the mid-1900s when this photo was taken, they overlooked Mount Airy. Many believe they were originally built as slave cabins. An unidentified man and three children can be seen at the cabin. Flat Rock Presbyterian Church, which sits at the at the entrance to the North Carolina Granite Quarry, can be seen in the distance.
By Kate Rauhauser-Smith
Kate Rauhauser-Smith is the visitor services manager for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History with 22 years in journalism before joining the museum staff. She and her family moved to Mount Airy in 2005 from Pennsylvania where she was also involved with museums and history tours. She can be reached at KRSmith@NorthCarolinaMuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x228
