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The Journal of Rockingham County history and genealogy Now Available!

Thanks to our partners at Rockingham Community College, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has digitized and made The Journal of Rockingham County History and Genealogy publicly available for research and general viewing as well.

Initially, the journal was published semi-annually (1976-2005) but is currently being published annually. When viewing the collection you can see the shift in publishing frequency. Inside the covers of this journal you will find the history of historical landmarks, maps, funeral and cemeteries along with general connections among families in and around the Rockingham County, NC area.

To view more genealogy journals from across North Carolina, click here!


Rockingham County Materials Now Available

Picture of teacher Ruth Wiley. Under the photo is written: Mrs. Ruth Wiley retires from teaching, "but not from life."

Mrs. Ruth Wiley, June 19, 1985.

Thanks to our partner, Rockingham County Public Library, batches containing various materials including Madison-Mayodan High School yearbooks, newspaper clippings of school classes, a hand-written history of The Black Community Heritage of Madison, and 14 issues spanning 1947 to 1997 of Rockingham County’s magazine The Advisor are now available on our website.

One highlight from this batch is the hand-written history of The Black Community Heritage of Madison. Although the material includes history of Black individuals in Madison from around the first recorded migration (~June of 1775), it focuses more heavily on after the Civil War. The work is split up into major topics such as churches, businesses, education, and civic organizations. 

In the education section, the document traces the beginning of the Madison Public School System to Mary Black Franklin. Franklin began teaching members of the community in her home and in other various places in the community that would allow her to use the space. The number of students she taught continued to grow until the first public school was founded in a two room building. Eventually, a larger building later named the “Old Hall” was purchased to give the school more space. The school was only in operation six months out of the year. Students were allowed to attend the first three months of school for free, but parents would have to pay a tax for their children to finish the final three months. This system led to the creation of the Madison Public School System.

To learn more about the Rockingham County Public Library, please visit their website.

For more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit our yearbook collection.

To view more content from Rockingham County Public Library, please visit here.


Substantial and Varied Collection from Rockingham County Now Online

The latest materials digitized from Rockingham County Public Library are online now, and oh are they wide-ranging. Included in this batch are church bulletins, postcards, audio recordings, local histories, genealogical records, and even an intricate cross stitch of Rockingham County’s not-quite-neighbor, Person County.

Many of these items recount the history of the towns of Leaksville, Draper, and Spray before the three were consolidated into a single town, Eden N.C., in 1967. One of these is the book Leaksville-Spray, North Carolina: A Sketch of its Interests and Industries, which is one of only two copies known to exist today. It gives extensive details about textile and other manufacturing industries in the area during the early twentieth century.

Morehead Cotton Mills Co.

Leaksville’s Morehead Mills was founded by future governor John Motley Morehead, also known as “the Father of Modern North Carolina.”

Other materials included in this batch were created well after Leaksville, Draper, and Spray were incorporated as Eden. The song “The Ballad of Leaksville, Spray, and Draper,” written by Leaksville native John Marshall Carter, laments the merger of the three cities with its chorus of, “I can’t believe that they’ve done this to me, I can’t conceive that they’ve killed history.” This song along with “Olden Days” were digitized from an original 45 rpm record.

Header for the Farmer's Advocate Newsletter

“Published Sporadically But Enthusiastically” reads the tagline on the first edition of the Farmer’s Advocate Newsletter.

Also digitized were 70 editions of The Farmer’s Advocate Newsletter from the Historic Jamestown Society — a group dedicated to the preservation of the stories and structures of Jamestown N.C. — spanning from 1975 to 2018.

Rockingham-area genealogists may find some gems in the records of family reunions, vital statistics, church publications, or cemetery survey included in this batch.

All of the items from the most recent batch can be accessed here. To learn more about the Rockingham County Public Library, visit their partner page on DigitalNC or their website.


New Materials from Rockingham County Public Library Include News Clippings, Booklets, and More

cover of an economic packet for encouraging economic investment in Madison-Mayodan, NC.

The Madison-Mayodan, N.C. Story

A new batch of materials from our partner, Rockingham County Public Library, adds scrapbooks of news clippings, books and booklets about Rockingham County History, images, and more to DigitalNC. Included are two volumes collecting “Remember When” columns from The Madison Messenger, which recount historic events from the town’s past and the “Madison-Mayodan Story” which was a packet put out by the Chamber of Commerce to encourage investment in the community in 1960.  It includes statistics about industry in the town, as well as some great photographs.  

The full batch can be seen at the links below.  

Images:

Learn more about Rockingham County Public Library by visiting their partner page or their website.  


New Yearbooks from Leaksville High School in Rockingham County Now Online at DigitalNC

An exterior shot of Leaksville High School in 1947.

A new batch of several yearbooks from Rockingham County is now available on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Rockingham County Public Library. Included are six issues of The Pilot from 1937 to 1945, and four issues of The Weaver, from 1947-1952. Both titles are from Leaksville High School and these yearbooks give us a greater picture of what it meant to be a high school student in Rockingham County around that time.

These yearbooks include individual and class portraits, as well as photographs of activities, clubs, and sports teams. Some of the yearbooks also include class histories and the history of Leaksville High School. The 1937 yearbook highlights the changes since the school’s founding in 1905, and notes that the school “no longer is dependent on the janitor to ring the bells,” but instead has a “system of electric clocks, gongs, and bells.” A few of the yearbooks also include poems dedicated to the class, and “last wills and testaments,” where the graduating class would “bequeath” their skills, positions, and duties to upcoming seniors.

1947 photos of the Leaksville High annual yearbook staff (L) and the staff of The Cub Reporter school newspaper (R)

Follow the links below to browse the yearbooks included in this batch:

To see more from Rockingham County Public Library, visit their partner page, or take a look at their website.


New Materials from Rockingham County Public Library, Including Yearbooks, Films, and More

The James J. Dallas home in Rockingham County.

The newest batch of materials from our partner, Rockingham County Public Library, includes two yearbooks, three books, a vertical file, several newspaper issues, and two short films. The yearbooks, from 1967 and 1968, were created by Madison-Mayodan Junior High School. The books cover the stories of Rockingham county notables John D. Robertson and James J. Dallas, as well as the Greensboro Telephone Exchange. The vertical file contains materials related to Smyrna Presbyterian Church’s centennial celebration, and the newspapers include more issues from the Fieldcrest Mill Whistle.

Lastly, video footage in this batch includes two films converted from 8mm format. The first shows the 1969 Madison Christmas Parade filmed in downtown Madison, NC. The second is a film created by Macfield Inc. that details their continuing education program for employees.

Serious student government officials seen in the 1968 Madison-Mayodan Junior High School yearbook.

To browse through the items in this batch, click the links below.

To see more materials from Rockingham County Public Library, check out their DigitalNC partner page, or take a look at their website.


New Additions to Rockingham County Legacy Exhibit Incude Garden Club Yearbooks, Scrapbooks, and More

The cover of Bicentennial: North Carolina History Volume 1

The Stoneville Garden Club song printed in the 1952-1953 garden club yearbook

The newest batch of materials from our partner Rockingham County Public Library includes 3 scrapbooks, over 20 garden club yearbooks, 3 school yearbooks, and more. The scrapbooks are comprised of news clippings pertaining to the National Bicentennial Celebration of North Carolina Independence that took place from 1975-1976. Each volume collects articles chronologically in the order that they were published.

The garden club yearbooks document the Stoneville Garden Club from 1937-1999. These yearbooks feature lists of the year’s officers, committees, programs, and the club’s constitution. The yearbooks also feature the club’s song which starts “Plant a Shrub, a Flower, a Tree!” and decorative covers in the club’s colors–pink and green.

The cover of the 1937 club yearbook

Also included in this batch are the 1939 and  1940 editions of The Pilot by Leaksville High School and the 1944 edition of The Crest by Draper High School.

To see all of the materials in the Rockingham County Legacy exhibit, visit the exhibit’s homepage. To learn more about Rockingham County Public Library visit their partner page or take a look at their website.


New Memorabilia, Assorted Records added to the Rockingham County Legacy Digital Exhibit

Madison-Mayodan Charm Bracelet

Madison-Mayodan Charm Bracelet

A new batch of materials from Rockingham County Public Library is now available on DigitalNC!

This batch includes several 3-dimensional, physical objects, which are always interesting to digitize. DigitalNC has digitized everything from full size quilts to wedding dresses, but not everything requires that much work. Rockingham County Public Library’s pins, brooches, hair barrette, and charm bracelet are small enough to scan using the same workflow as larger scrapbooks and newspapers (see the documentation about our Phase One Camera), which are more common on the site. To see examples of larger items that must be shot in a studio, follow this link.

Brownie Scout Hair Barrette

Brownie Scout Hair Barrette

North Carolina Tar Heel Girl State Pin

North Carolina Tar Heel Girl State Pin

In addition to the physical objects, this batch also includes several other items that may be of interest to researchers or genealogists. The Speedwell Presbyterian Churchyard Graves booklet documents the names and locations of all of those buried in the historic cemetery between 1739-1969. The Stoneville Patron Registration books records the names and locations of those who used this branch library between 1959 and 1982.

See the lists below for all of the material digitized in this batch.

Physical Objects:

Booklets:

Other Digitized Memorabilia:

These items and more than 1500 more are all available at the digital exhibit, Rockingham County Legacy: A Digital Heritage Project. To learn more about Rockingham County Public Library and to see even more interesting Memorabilia, visit the contributor page or the website. To see more digitized physical objects available on DigitalNC, please use the following link.


Rockingham County Architecture Slide Collection now complete

newnamtenanthouse

Newnam Tenant House, front 1982

pritchetthouse

Pritchett House, side 1982

DigitalNC has added the last set of slides from the Early Rockingham County Architecture Collection. This collection of slides, provided by Rockingham Community College, was taken in the 1980s and includes images of homes, schools, businesses, factories, mills, farms, churches, and many other historic buildings in Rockingham. While some of these buildings have since been demolished, many are standing today and information on dates of the buildings as well as location are included in the image descriptions. The new set of slides focuses mainly on images of historic homes and plantations like the Thomas Ratliffe House, Willow Oaks, and the Lower Sauratown Plantation. While most of the slides show the exteriors of buildings, there are also many interior shots of architectural details, like stairways and fireplaces.  To learn more about previous sets we have put online, view blog posts here and here.

Check out the newly added and previous slides in the Early Rockingham County Architecture Collection, and learn more about Rockingham Community College on the contributor page or by visiting their website. If you are interested in Rockingham County history, also take a look at the Rockingham County Legacy exhibit.


More architecture slides from Rockingham County now online

Butler Tobacco Factory

Butler Tobacco Factory

Featured in the latest batch of architecture slides from Rockingham Community College to be digitized by DigitalNC are several well known homes, including the Hermitage, Chinqua-Penn Plantation, and the David Settle Reid house.  Also included are mills, barns, and even a saloon.  Taken in the early 1980s, these photographs include multiple exterior as well as interior views of the buildings. Some of buildings still stand today and others no longer exist, but location, owners’ names, and building dates are included in the descriptions of the photographs.

CraftonHouseinterior

Crafton House, interior view

davidsettlereidhouse

David Settle Reid House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can learn more about these slides and the architecture depicted  in the Guide to the Early Rockingham County Architecture Slide Collection. See more from Rockingham Community College on the contributor page and learn more on their website.


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This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.

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