South Carolina Genealogy

This is another event sponsored in part by the Spartanburg Historical Association…

The Spartanburg County Historical Association, The Spartanburg History Hub, and Wofford College cordially invite you and your friends to meet Dr. Eric Emerson, Director of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

We plan to discuss the agency’s mission, the services that its offers, and the challenges that it faces in the future.

5:30 p.m., Monday, August 23, 2010
The Montgomery Room, Burwell Building
Wofford College (864) 597-4182
429 North Church Street
Spartanburg, SC 29303

No RSVPs are required; casual attire.
The meeting will last approximately one hour.
Latecomers arriving from work are welcome.

The Historic Seay house is open this Saturday (tomorrow) to the public.

Saturday at The Seay House
August 21, 2010
10:00-4:00

Join us this Saturday at The Seay House, Spartanburg’s oldest home. Located at 106 Darby Road just off Crescent Avenue, this home showcases the dwelling of a local farmstead managed and maintained by three maiden Seay sisters in the late 1800s. Come relax for an hour or two on this historic property! Visit www.spartanburghistory.org, email seayhouse@spartanburghistory.org, or call 864-596-3501 for more information.

The Seay House is open by appointment year-round and on the 3rd Saturday of the summer months except July. Sponsors allow us to open at no charge to the public, though visitor donations help us maintain the property. Special thanks to Linda Bilanchone for sponsoring August’s Saturday at the Seay House. The Seay House is one of 3 historic homes maintained by the Spartanburg County Historical Association.

General Information:
The Seay House is the oldest house in the city limits of Spartanburg. Although a definite construction date for the log portion has not been established, evidence indicates that it was built prior to 1850. Two of the frame additions made to the home in the late 19th century still remain. The oldest portion of the house is a typical Scots-Irish, one room, one-and-a-half story, log house. The logs are hand-hewn, and the foundation is fieldstone. The pipestem chimney, also made of fieldstone, is a style commonly found in Virginia but unusual for upstate South Carolina.

The Seay House is a modest home and reflects the kind of life that the majority of the settlers in Spartanburg County and the Carolina Backcountry lived. Interpretation at the Seay House focuses on the lives of women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was a farmstead, and the three daughters of Kinsman Seay – Ruthy, Patsy, and Sarah – who lived in this house up to the times of their deaths lived a simple farm life. While today this home is largely surrounded by a modern neighborhood, when you step onto the grounds you can begin to imagine what it must have been like to live without electricity or running water, to grow and raise your own food, and to make your own clothing.

This looks like an eventful weekend in the Spartanburg area…. this is scheduled for the 14th and 15th of August (this weekend!)

History Comes Alive at Musgrove Mill State Historic Site

CLINTON – Musgrove Mill State Historic Site will host its Anniversary Celebration on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 14-15. Reenactors and historians from around the Southeast will demonstrate what it was like to live and fight in the South during the American Revolution.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another great event in Spartanburg coming up this Saturday!

Downtown Spartanburg Walking Tour

Begins at Regional History Museum, 200 E. St. John St., Spartanburg
Saturday, May 29, 2010 – 10:00 to 11:30 am

Admission: $10 adults, $5 students
Limited to 30

Downtown walking tours begin at the Regional History Museum and proceed to East Main Street, through Morgan Square, down Magnolia Street and back along St. John Street. Participants will see historic photographs depicting historical views of downtown Spartanburg from while standing where they were taken. Additionally, we’ll hear fascinating and often humorous stories about downtown and its occupants. Downtown has changed a lot since 1787, and there is no better way to see it than by standing in the places where history happened! Tours will be canceled in the case of inclement weather. Custom tours for school and civic groups also available.

To make reservations or for more information, contact Brad Steinecke at 596-3501 or by emailing bsteinecke@spartanburghistory.org.

Received this reminder via email:

The next meeting of the Spartanburg History Hub is scheduled for Thursday, May 27, 7:00 pm at 234 S. Spring Street, Spartanburg, behind the main post office. (This is one of the Preservation Trust’s renovated Hampton Heights homes and you can wander through it.) Parking is limited at the house, but you can park behind the National Beta Club office/Southside Baptist Church back lot a block or so down the street. If you have questions, feel free to call or email me.

There is no charge for attending meetings of the Spartanburg History Hub and we’ll wrap up promptly at 8:00 pm. There will be the opportunity for introductions and brief announcements. Feel free to bring fliers or brochures so you can give a short announcement and interested parties can pick up the detailed information afterward. Jack Parker will be with us from Camden to talk about and autograph his new book, Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina (http://www.screvwarguide.com/). Special thanks to members Bob & Christine Swager for luring him to Spartanburg by offering accommodations at their “B&B!”

Each of us involved with history has a unique set of skills, experiences, and resources related to preserving and promoting history. If we combine our strengths, we will take Spartanburg County’s history community to the next level which will benefit us as well as our communities at large. This Hub is designed to bring people and organizations with a commitment to Spartanburg County history together to share what they’re doing, hear what others are doing, and facilitate learning and collaboration. The Hub won’t work if you don’t come!

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think may be interested or send me their contact information and I will send an invitation. Also, please let me know at any time if you would prefer not to receive Hub emails.

I look forward to seeing you on the 27th!

Sincerely,
Becky Slayton, Executive Director
Spartanburg County Historical Association, 864-278-9664

Spartanburg County Library, Barrett Room
May 24@7PM

Received the following invitation and wanted to pass it along:

Plan to bring your friends and join us this coming Monday evening, May 24, for an early performance of this year’s Chautauqua Spartanburg, as Caroline McIntyre portrays Mary Ingles at the Spartanburg County Library. Leading off our second year of Chautauqua in Spartanburg, this event will give you a glimpse of what Chautauqua is all about as we eagerly anticipate the 2010 schedule, which will take place June 18, 19, 21 and 22 (see attached schedule). All performances are FREE.

At the Monday performance, you will meet Mary Draper Ingles, a Southwest Virginia Frontierswoman (portrayed in James Thom’s book, Follow the River) captured by Shawnee Indians during the French and Indian War. Through the magic of Chautauqua we are transported back in time to 1755 to meet the real Mary Draper Ingles and learn from her the courage it takes to survive in the wilderness. Mary will start by telling us her story of the Massacre at Drapers Meadows, her escape from the Shawnee and eventual return home. Please take a few moments and look over the attachments with this email.

CHAUTAUQUA (pronounced Shuh – TALK – wa) is interactive theater presenting: History that just won’t stay in a book. The June Chautauqua programs will follow the theme – American Imagination and offer four nights other historic figures like Thomas Edison on June 18, Benjamin Franklin on June 19, Dr. Seuss on June 21 and Langston Hughes on June 22 as each comes to Spartanburg to talk with us.

We hope you will join us next Monday and for the summer programs.

Questions: Call Charlie Gray at 864-641-8378 or 864-597-4186.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Lauren Ponder, Spartanburg Convention and Visitors Bureau
864-594-5051-phone, 864-594-5052-fax, lponder@visitspartanburg.com www.visitspartanburg.com

Hub City Railroad Museum Grand Opening.
Spartanburg, SC, April 19th, 2010 – The Hub City Railroad Museum is planning its Grand Opening for Saturday, May 1st. Kicking off National Transportation Week, the grand opening will be from 8am through 4pm in and around the Magnolia Street Train Station (298 Magnolia St.) where the museum is housed.
Activities include tour rides every hour and a half running at 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am and 1pm that will take you on the Main Street Trolley through the City of Spartanburg detailing the historical spots that made Spartanburg known as the Hub City. Trolley tours will be $5 per person with all proceeds going back to the museum and are first come first served.

A videographer will also be on staff between the hours of Noon and 2pm to create a living history of the rails in Spartanburg County in hopes of showing the final piece inside the museum once it has been compiled.

Lil’ Pigs BBQ will provide lunch with 20% of the earnings going back to the museum as well.

Classic cars and trucks and possible orchard tractors will be displayed to show machinery from a specific time period and how things were transported from the trains once delivered.

Donations will be accepted as there will be no charge to enter the museum. Small gift shop items will also be available. The Museum’s normal hours will be Saturdays 8am – 2pm and Wednesdays 10am – 2pm with group tours by appointment.

The Hub City Railroad Museum is a collaborative effort between the Spartanburg Convention & Visitors Bureau, the National Railway Historical Society and the Spartanburg County Historical Association.

Once again – I wanted to pass this along for the Spartanburg County Historical Association:

Don’t miss this Friday’s Lunch & Learn Speaker Series. Dr. Tracy Revels of Wofford College presents “The Cult of True Womanhood” discussing the 19th Century ideal which American women aspired to achieve. BYOL (that’s bring your own lunch) and be ready to discuss how modern media influence our understanding of gender roles today.

Lunch & Learn is from 12:30-1:30 in the 1st floor Conference Room in the Moseley Building of the Chapman Cultural Center. That’s the same building as the History Museum and Art Museum. $5 at the door. Contact Nannie Jefferies at 864-596-3501 or njefferies@spartanburghistory.org for more information.

The Lunch & Learn Speaker Series is organized by the Regional History Museum, one of four sites operated by the Spartanburg County Historical Association. The Association’s mission is to explore and preserve our region’s history by collecting and sharing the stories and artifacts of the people who shaped that history. We do this by engaging visitors in unique living history programs in the city and county of Spartanburg, by inspiring learners of all ages to investigate the history that begins in their own backyard at our Regional History Museum and at our three historic sites – Walnut Grove Plantation, Price House, and Seay House, and by involving the community in the preservation and promotion of our shared past through the Spartanburg History Hub – a network of people and organizations committed to Spartanburg history.