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This newspaper clipping discusses the early conversations on opening a community college for the county in Marion, NC. The college would later become known as McDowell County Technical Community College
Scrapbooks from McDowell County Public Library are now available on Digital NC. The scrapbooks include newspaper clippings from specific events through McDowell County. The scrapbooks are clippings for the local 4- H Club, along with a wide range of clippings from various communities, including the City of Marion and Old Fort. You can also view clippings from the Chamber of Commerce and the McDowell Technical Community College.
Special thanks to our partner, McDowell County Public Library. To view more from the library, including this collection, visit them here.
To see more in our North Carolina Memorabilia collection, visit here.
Cutout from the McDowell County Agriculture Scrapbook
21 new scrapbooks and 10 new yearbooks from the McDowell County Public Library are now online at DigitalNC. The scrapbooks, all of which make up part of MCPL’s Greenlee Collection of Scrapbooks, date roughly from the 1910s to the early 1990s and document various aspects of life in McDowell County. From health and safety, to forest conservation, to arts and crafts, each scrapbook focuses on one of a wide range of topics. The scrapbooks’ pages consist largely of newspaper clippings from various local papers, such as the McDowell News, and a few more regional publications like the the Charlotte Observer. The materials provide a wealth of information for anyone interested in learning about topics of interest to citizens of communities such as Marion and Old Fort over the course of the 20th century. The scrapbooks are neatly organized and generally present their information in chronological order.
Cutout from the McDowell County military scrapbook, 1941-1945
The recent batch also features 10 more yearbooks from MCPL. These include four from Glenwood High School (1951, 1952. 1954, and 1957), two from North Cove High School (1941 and 1942). and one each from Clevenger College (1959), Old Fort High School (1968), Nebo High School (1968), and Marion High School (1968). Together the two sets of materials represent a treasure trove of resources for researchers of local history in North Carolina.
The new additions join a handful of other MCPL scrapbooks and yearbooks already online at DigitalNC. For more information, please visit the MCPL’s DigitalNC page or follow this link to their website.
Superlatives from the 1958 Tyshac; from left is Donald McKinney (most popular), Pauline Crisp (most studious), and Richard Buchanan (most likely to succeed).
Nineteen yearbooks from eight high schools in McDowell County have been digitized by our partner, the McDowell County Public Library, and added to our site. The batch includes:
- Glenwood High School’s The Nushka (1955, 1967, 1968)
- Clevenger College’s The Tyshac (1958)
- Pleasant Gardens High School’s The Pines (1961, 1969, 1970)
- Old Fort High School’s Arrowhead (1969, 1970, 1971)
- Marion High School’s Hylander (1969, 1970, 1971)
- Nebo High School’s Pioneer (1969, 1970, 1971)
- North Cove High School’s Conasoga (1971)
- McDowell High School’s Odyssey (1972, 1973)
Margaret B. Norris, dedicatee of the 1967 Nushka
One delightful hallmark of yearbooks from this era is the dedication to a beloved teacher or administrator. One sweet example is the dedication to Margaret Norris (who has a little bit of a Meryl Streep look) at the beginning of the 1967 edition of The Nushka. It reads, “It would be impossible to estimate the number of ways in which she has made our days a little brighter, our paths a little easier to travel, and our lives a little more worthwhile.”
Another dedication from the 1969 Pioneer celebrates “our friend” and “a man unafraid to stand for right, even though he may stand alone,” Jack Kirstein. It reads, “Dedicated to making young people better citizens, he presents himself as a living example of the love, patience, and understanding human beings must have for one another.”
You can read more heartwarming dedications in the full batch of yearbooks, available here. You can also browse our full collection of high school yearbooks by school and year in our North Carolina Yearbooks collection. To see more materials from the McDowell County Public Library, visit their partner page and their website.
Newspaper Clippings of Volunteer Efforts in McDowell County
New scrapbooks from McDowell County Public Library are now available on Digital NC. The new scrapbooks include a wide variety of pictures, newspaper articles, and information about community members who have served in various wars such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and even World War II. Most notable is the newspaper clipping of the many volunteer community efforts within McDowell County, showing how the community can come together to help others.
The new collections include previous materials from McDowell County, such as the 4-H Club and McDowell Technical Community College materials.
Special thanks to our partner, McDowell County Public Library, for the chance to scan these items. If you would like to see more materials related to NC memorabilia, visit them here.
People and Events in McDowell County News Volume I, 243
Scrapbooks are the newest additions to the North Carolina Memory Collection, courtesy of McDowell County Public Library.
Each scrapbook contains newspaper clippings and notes about various subjects relating to McDowell County, its residents, and its culture. This batch contains information about local churches, doctors, general events from the early to mid twentieth century. Because most of the text included is newsprint, the scrapbooks are full-text searchable, which can make research easier and more efficient.
Several of the highlights from this batch include stories that recognize notable women from McDowell County, including the scrapbooks’ creator Mary Margaret Greenlee. One example is represented in the story on the right about Mrs. Louise Cunningham Byron. Byron trained and worked as a mortician and was interviewed about her breaking the mold in a male-dominated field.
People and Events in McDowell County News, Volume II, page 123
Mrs. Greenlee is also prominently featured in the scrapbooks. Greenlee was a well known educator and advocate in several counties in Western North Carolina. These scrapbooks are excellent resources for learning more about her life, the lives of women and men throughout the county, and about the history of McDowell County.
You can view all of the new scrapbooks in this collection at the links below:
To see all of digitized scrapbooks from the Greenlee Collection, please use the following link. To learn more about McDowell County Public Library, please visit the contributor page or the website.
The 1966 Nebo High School baseball team
Several yearbooks from various high schools in McDowell County, provided by McDowell County Public Library, are now on DigitalNC. Included are editions of The Nushka from 1963-1966 by Glenwood High School, editions of The Marionette from 1963-1966 by Marion Junior High School, editions of The Hylander from 1963-1967 by Marion High School, the 1966 Pioneer by Nebo High School, editions of The Arrowhead from 1963-1967 from Old Fort High School, and editions of The Pines by Pleasant Gardens High School from 1964, 1966, and 1967. The yearbooks join many previously digitized yearbooks from these schools. These yearbooks include photographs of clubs, activities, dances, sports, and more.
A sock hop at Marion Junior High in 1966
To view more materials from McDowell County Public Library, visit their partner page, or take a look at their website.
A 1961 newspaper headline from an article about foreign language classes being introduced to the school curriculum
A new batch of scrapbooks from the McDowell County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC. These scrapbooks include three volumes about McDowell County schools and two volumes about hospitals in McDowell county. Mary Margaret Greenlee (1892-1965), an educator and historian who began her career in McDowell County, began the compilation of these scrapbooks, which were then continued and completed by her family members.
The McDowell County School scrapbooks span 1960-1992, and include newspaper clippings about school facilities, administration, student activities and clubs, and more. The Hospitals in McDowell County scrapbooks span 1908-1992 and include clippings about hospital staff, expansions, programs and news.
A newspaper clipping showing school children performing a puppet show about car safety
To view these scrapbooks, click the links below:
To take a look at other materials from the McDowell County Public Library, including the first five volumes of McDowell County school scrapbooks, visit their partner page. You can also learn more about McDowell County Public Library at their website.
McDowell County Schools, Volume 2, page 219
Thanks to our partner, the McDowell County Public Library, 5 new scrapbooks are now available in the North Carolina Memory Collection!
The 5 scrapbooks feature newspaper clippings that, together, cover nearly a century of history of the McDowell County School System. They document the schools, students, administrators, and events in the area. Mary Margaret Greenlee (1892-1965) and her relatives complied the scrapbooks. Greenlee was a well-known educator and advocate of historical preservation in McDowell, Iredell, and Catawba counties.
These scrapbooks, which are full text searchable using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), are excellent resources for those interested in genealogical or historical research in McDowell County. They would be useful for studying change over time in the education system in North Carolina.
You can view each other digitized scrapbooks at the links below:
Visit the McDowell County Public Library’s contributor page or home page to learn more about their collections, events, and other services. To see more scrapbooks like these, browse the North Carolina Memory Collection.
McDowell County Schools Scrapbook, Volume 1, page 195
Yearbook cover of the 1962 Arrowhead, from Old Fort High School.
Yearbooks contributed by the McDowell County Public Library have just been added to DigitalNC.org.
- Glenwood High School: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962
- Hudgins High School (Marion, NC): 1951 and 1954
- Marion High School: 1926, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962
- Nebo High School Yearbooks: 1950, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, and 1958
- Nebo High School History and Memorabilia
- North Cove High School: 1948, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960
- Old Fort High School: 1949-1962
- Pleasant Gardens High School (Marion, NC): 1948, 1949, 1950, 1953, and 1955
You can view all of the yearbooks from McDowell County here.
Images of students and staff from the Glenwood Elementary and High School are now available on DigitalNC. From the book Glenwood School 1904-1972: Progressing by Fits and Starts by James Lawton Haney, these images are online courtesy the McDowell County Public Library.
The image above is of the 1956 Handicraft Club, taken from page 147.
