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Hot Springs and a Finer Carolina: Scrapbooks from the Madison County Public Library

Blog Image - streetsigns1954As mentioned in an earlier blog post, the Carolina Power and Light Company (CP&L) sponsored the Finer Carolina competition from 1952 to 1959.  Each year, towns from throughout the company’s service area completed community improvement projects with the goal of earning cash prizes and bragging rights as “Carolina’s Finest.”

The town of Hot Springs, in Madison County, North Carolina, created scrapbooks to document its entries for three years of the competition: 1954, 1956, and 1957.  Many of the town’s endeavors concerned beautification, such as planting flowers and painting houses and fences.  However, projects to improve infrastructure were also undertaken.  In 1954, Hot Springs modernized the city water system, installed three new traffic lights, and added street signs.  The town’s accomplishments resulted in a $500 prize which was used to fund improvements during the 1956 competition.  The focal point of that year’s campaign was the establishment of a medical clinic and the arrival of a physician to serve the town’s population.  In 1957, community groups purchased and renovated a community center which provided space for the county’s library and town’s welfare clinic. The original scrapbooks are in the Madison County Public Library.

In addition to the scrapbooks from Hot Springs, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has also digitized a scrapbook documenting the 1954 Finer Carolina activities of Burgaw.


Over 50 Yearbooks from Madison County Now Available on Digital NC!

Yearbook Cover

Front Cover of the 1940 – 1941 “The Spa” from Hot Springs High School in Madison County.

Thanks to our partnership with Madison County Public Library, Digital NC now has over 50 yearbooks from 6 different high schools. The high schools include Marshall, Mars Hill, Walnut, Hot Springs, Laurel, and Spring Creek High Schools. The yearbooks cover the 1940s – 1970s and cover a wide range of students, clubs, and faculty. Yearbook titles include “The Smoky” (1951) from Spring Creek High School, “Starlite” (1957), and “The Spa” (1940 –1941) from Hot Springs High School, and Panther Tracks (1957) from Walnut High School, just to name a few.  

To view the entire yearbook collection and other items from Madison County Public Library, visit them here. You can also visit their website here 

To view our collections of high school and college yearbooks from North Carolina, visit our collection 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.


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 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 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.


Birthdays, Community Accomplishments Featured in New Additions to Rockingham County Legacy Project

5 Scrapbooks, several fliers, a local mill’s employee newspaper, and an assortment of news clippings from the Rockingham County Public Library are the latest additions to the collaborative Rockingham County Legacy project.

Birthdays were a pervasive theme among some of DigitalNC’s new additions from the Rockingham County Public Library. The Welcome to Madison Rockingham County – Wagon Train Scrapbook documents the festivities for the town’s 150th Birthday, including parades, dances, and competitions. Perhaps one of the more interesting competitions was the “Beards of the Week,” featured in the back pages of the scrapbook. Sesquicentennial activities had Madison reliving earlier days, as the clippings demonstrate costumes from several different decades. The most popular period covered in the scrapbook appears to be the early 19th century, with men, women, and children all looking the part in articles from the Madison Messenger. The Madison Sesquicentennial Celebration [1968] folder also features fliers, brochures, and order forms for the different events during the celebration. However, the town of Madison was not the only community celebrating. The congregation of Bethel A.M.E. Church, Reidsville, N.C. documented their Centennial Celebration with a booklet, as well. Speedwell Presbyterian Church and Some Rockingham County Churches are sets of newspaper clippings that document several other churches’ birthdays, anniversaries, and moments.

rcpl_publiclibrary099

Madison Public Library, Page 42

The Madison Public Library Scrapbook documents the successes and trials of several library branches in Rockingham County during the 1950’s. While Madison Public Library experienced growth, both in the collection and in numbers of users, it also faced budgetary and resources constraints.

rcpl_people1141

Rockingham County People Vol. I, Page 34.

Rockingham County People, Volumes I-III, could serve as an interesting research tool to those seeking genealogical research about members of the Rockingham County community. The scrapbooks, sorted alphabetically, feature profiles of people who once resided in the county. Some profiles document the daily lives of everyone from church leaders to stay-at-home mothers, while others highlight the interesting and important accomplishments of people that represent the county. One such example is the story of newspaper editor, Horace Carter, who waged a print war against the Ku Klux Klan during the 1950’s. Carter attacked the Klan through his paper and aided the FBI and SBI in undercover work. He eventually won several awards including the Pulitzer Prize.

To see any of the items featured here in full, along with the entire collection, visit the Rockingham County Legacy exhibit page. For more information about the Rockingham County Public Library and their materials, visit their contributor page on DigitalNC or their website.

 

 

 


History of Rockingham County Families, Baseball, and More Published Online

From the booklet celebrating the 150th year of Madison, NC.

From the booklet celebrating the 150th year of Madison, NC.

The Digital Heritage Center just finished digitizing a large batch of materials from Rockingham County Public Library as part of the collaborative Rockingham County Legacy project, which gathers materials from various contributors relating to the history and heritage of the county.

Chief among the items are local and family histories. One volume, entitled Roots and Branches, contains research from the Genealogical Society of Rockingham & Stokes Counties on various families in the region. However, the majority of the research was conducted and collated by local historian John T. Dallas.

Several new family histories have been added as well. The Alcorn/Alcon, Blair, Dallas, Downs, Gates, Grubb and Settle, Jarrell, Stephens, Thomas, and White families all have newly published volumes containing a profusion of Rockingham/Stokes county genealogical research.

Numerous advertisers dressed up in historic clothing to celebrate Madison's long history.

Numerous advertisers dressed up in historic clothing to celebrate Madison’s long history.

Several town and other regional histories have also been published: Smithtown, Draper, Leaksville, Spray, the Mont View/Galloway Farm, and Sugartree Primitive Baptist Church in Virginia, which also contains information on the Dallas family and Wesley Chapel Church. Additionally, there is a Rockingham County employee directory from 1960, a book of employees of Marshall Field and Company Manufacturing Division who served in World War II, and the fifth volume of the history of Wentworth High School series. The booklet celebrating the 1968 sesquicentennial celebration of the town of Madison (pictured above) showcases the rich history of the town and includes many excellent historic photographs.

There is also a booklet on the history of the Saura, a small Siouan tribe who lived in the Rockingham and Stokes counties area. The booklet was written as an introduction to the Native American tribe for students in Rockingham county schools. The volume, though slightly dated, is nevertheless a useful resource for both the history of the tribe and as a record of how the history of Native people was taught to students in that time. The tribe itself is no longer extant but persists at least in name in the Sauratown mountains of Stokes county; the range includes the popular destinations Pilot Mountain and Hanging Rock State Park. For more information about the Saura, also known as the Cheraw, visit the NCpedia page.

Lastly, baseball! John Dallas compiled a two-volume history of Reidsville, NC’s short-lived minor league baseball team, the Luckies. They are also mentioned in the Sugartree Church volume, linked above.

To explore more items from the Rockingham County Legacy project, please see the exhibit page.


Additional materials from Rockingham County Public Library added to NC Memory!

The Rockingham County Public Library has recently contributed a new batch of materials to the Rockingham County: A Digital Heritage Project digital exhibit on DigitalNC.

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A Scrapbook: Mayodan, North Carolina People (Cover), 1909-1944

rcpl_GraceBaptistChurch_SundayProgram_1981_001

Grace Baptist Church Sunday Program from the 57th Anniversary Service, 1981

The emphasis of this batch was on local history. Pictorial histories of Reidsville and Rockingham County generally are joined by self-published booklets by a local historian, a scrapbook of Mayodan people and events from 1909 to 1944, and materials related to church histories from the vertical files.

Grace Baptist Church in Mayodan, N.C. celebrated its 57th Anniversary in 1981. A history of the church was published and distributed along with the Sunday Program on August 23, 1981. The vertical files include newspaper clippings, programs, and cemetery surveys to flesh out the history of various local churches in Mayodan, Ellisboro, Reidsville, and Madison.

While the vertical files focused primarily on church history, booklets published by John T. Dallas tackled more diverse topics. Dallas compiled fifteen booklets containing archival research, newspaper clippings, registers, and photographs between the years of 2006 and 2012. Seven of these booklets are dedicated to genealogical studies of notable families, while others cover topics such as murdergambling, and confederate history.

These materials were digitized as part of a 2014-2015 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) EZ Digitzation Grant, as distributed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina.


New Materials Added to Rockingham County Legacy Project

Rockingham County Drop in Library Scrapbook photo, 1977-1978We’ve just added scrapbooks, a town ledger, and several additional yearbooks from Rockingham County Public Library, part of the collaborative Rockingham County Legacy project.

Two Rockingham County Library programs from the 1970s are documented in these digitized scrapbooks. The Drop-in-Library (DIL) was a grant-funded initiative to bring resources, especially audio-visual ones, to children who couldn’t get to a physical library branch. The DIL van “dropped in” to residential areas, head start programs, day cares, schools, and other parts of the community, where staff would present filmstrips, read books, and provide the children with a variety of activities. The scrapbooks include newspaper articles, promotional materials, and documentation about the program, as well as photographs showing children taking advantage of the DILmobile’s resources. The Special Outreach Services (SOS) program similarly offered services to those who had trouble getting to a branch. This service delivered large print books and other materials via station wagon to the homebound.

This most recent batch also includes a Property Tax Register from the town of Madison, as well as more yearbooks for Booker T. Washington High School, John Motley Morehead High School, and Stoneville High School. There are now over 120 yearbooks from Rockingham County institutions available on DigitalNC.


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