Thanks to all who attended and helped put on the 23rd Brocks Gap Heritage Day

About 350 people attended our 23rd annual Brocks Gap Heritage Day on April 20th, and they came from 11 different states. Here's a sample of one of the four programs, a ten-minute interview on YouTube made by ShenandoahValleyTV. View it at http://www.youtube.com/shenandoahvalleytv

Keep up with the progress on Jeff Evans' research on pie safes at http://thevirginiasafeproject.com/ or their Facebook page.  Jeff gathered information on two more Brocks Gap furniture makers in addition to Philip F. Baker.

The Turner Book update will be going to the printer soon. Lois Rhodes was taking orders for the book on Sat. The hardback book will have 850+ pages and many photographs and pictures of old Turner documents.

23^rd  Annual

Brocks Gap Heritage Day

Saturday, April 20, 2013

11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Fulks Run Elementary School

Over 130 photo displays of Brocks Gap scenes & people.  New books for sale. Book signings by authors. Research books available to use.

Special programs:

11:30         Pie Safe Designs and their making

Jeffrey S. Evans is founder of Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, Inc. Auctioneers and Appraisers in Mt. Crawford, VA. He formerly served as president and head of the Catalogued Auction division of Green Valley Auctions, Inc. (1979-2008). Jeff and Kurt C. Russ, former director of Washington and Lee University's Laboratory of Anthropology and independent scholar from Lexington, began a research project in 2010 of pie safes in the Shenandoah Valley. The culmination of their research will be a pie safe exhibit in 2014 at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. http://thevirginiasafeproject.com/   http://jeffreysevans.com/

12:15         Local Men who were killed in action during World War II

Delegate Joe T. May is a Broadway native and engineer and inventor  who has served since 1994 in the Virginia General Assembly. He will share his research in the service history of several men with Brocks Gap connections who gave their lives for their country in Europe during World War II. http://www.joetmay.com/home/

1:00          Russel F. “Frankie” Whetzel, KIA

Nancy May Hoover is a Broadway native and a retired director of the Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative and was chair of the regional association of the Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives and was president of the Broadway-Timberville Chamber of Commerce. The subject of her program, Russel F. Whetzel, was a Bergton native and was killed in action during World War II.

2:00          Antique Textile Expressions in Contemporary Language

                Priscilla Blosser-Rainey and Vicki Hottle Mongold.

Both women are Rockingham County natives with ties to Brocks Gap and they share a strong interest in antique textiles and crafts. They will display some of their textile collections and discuss how many of our modern-day expressions, like “dyed in the wool” and “black sheep of the family” came into being. 

Bring your old letters, deeds, old photos, old family Bibles, etc. to be copied for future books. Covers all areas of Brocks Gap—Runions Creek, Genoa, Fulks Run, Bergton, Criders, Dry River, Yankeetown, Palos, and Hoover.

Free and open to the public

Sponsored by Pat Turner Ritchie, 540 662-1475 or patritchie@verizon.net
and Garnett & Lena Albrite Turner

Next Brocks Gap Heritage Day: April 20, 2013

Same place, Fulks Run Elementary School, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tentative programs are about antique textiles (family pieces), World War II soldeirs from  Brocks Gap & Plains District of Rockingham County, and pie safes. More details later as they are finalized.

Help spread the word.

If you'd like to have a display, let me know before April 10 so we can save you a space. If you bring your own table, it's free. If you need a table, we'll rent an extra one from the rental company for about $10 each.

More details about Brocks Gap Heritage Day Sat. April 21, 2012

Joe T. May's program on World War II soldiers will begin with the service history of Bill Crider, son of Sam Crider of Fulks Run. He also has details on Bill Sager of Fulks Run, Orville Neff and Lawrence Holsinger of Broadway. As part of his research, Joe has also visited the battlefields where these men fell in service to their country.

Six authors will be there to sign and discuss their books:

• Bonnie Paul, Bernhart & Company, Shenandoah Valley Folk Art Fraktur (1774-1850)
• Thelma Estep Showalter, with Pat Ritchie & Chris Bolgiano, Fulks Run Elementary School 50th Anniversary 1961-2011, A Community Treasure
• Rosemarie Palmer, Civil War Stories
• Elsie Renalds Newcomer & Janet Renalds Ramsey, 1861, Life in the Shenandoah Valley
• Jerry Holsworth, Civil War Winchester
• Mildred Renalds Wittig, Henkel-Renalds Connection with Ancestral Scripts and Collections

We start at 11 a.m. and close at 4 p.m. Heritage Day is free and open to the public. Donations are accepted for our tombstone project, to erect tombstones in family cemeteries to preserve the names of the people buried there. We have already erected stones in seven cemeteries and plan to do at least one this year.

Hope you'll be able to join us on Saturday.

More details about 2012 Brocks Gap Heritage Day

We'll have two special programs on April 21.

v 11:30   Bonnie Paul, “The Mystery of the Brocks Gap Fraktur Artist”
Bonnie has been a member of the Board of Trustees of The Heritage Museum for six years. She was exhibit director of “Bernhart & Company, Shenandoah Valley Folk Art Fraktur (1774-1850)”

v 1:30    Joe T. May, “Local men who were killed during World War II”
Delegate Joe T. May is a Broadway native currently serving his eighth term in the Virginia General Assembly. He will share his research in the service history of several men who gave their lives for their country in Europe during World War II.

Brocks Gap Heritage Day set for April 21, 2012

Celebrate the past and present with us at the 22nd annual Brocks Gap Heritage Day, Sat., April 21,  2012, at Fulks Run Elementary School, Fulks Run, VA, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

See old photos of Brocks Gap families, use our books to do research, talk with other researchers. We're planning two new programs this year, and more details will be out soon.

Wet but successful Heritage Day

Margaret Nelson of Missouri brought a poster about her
branch of the Runion family.

In spite of heavy rain, flooding, and tornado watches, we had a successful Brocks Gap Heritage Day on April 16, 2011.  There were 270 visitors, from 17 different states plus South Africa.  The attendance was down from 425 last year, but 17 states almost ties the record of 18 states.  

 People came from Va., Maryland, West Va., Penn., South Carolina, Ohio, California, Conn., Florida, Kentucky, Washington state, Georgia, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Missouri, & Wisconsin. 

 

Ha, the South Africa person and her companion from Connecticut didn't initially know they were attending Heritage Day, but we're counting them anyway!  About 9:15 a.m. I was alone at the school when I heard the front door close.  "Who's there?" I called out, expecting some relatives.  It was a young stranger, looking a bit sheepish and saying they had just stopped to use the bathroom; they were in the middle of nowhere & there was no other place to stop, he said.  I laughed & agreed with him.



When the lady came out of the restroom, we chatted a bit.  Turned out they live in northern Va. and were on their way to Mathias, WV to visit a former co-worker who had retired to Mathias.  I took them to the gym to show them the Mathias poster, and they spent about 1/2 hour looking at the other posters, and talking about the area with Shirley & Bud Miller and Tressie Souder.  So we're counting them!

In the Caplinger family, one sister came from OH, one from CA, and another sibling from another part of OH.  In the Mountain George Fulk family, one cousin came from Wash. state, one from GA & one from Grottoes. They were excited to meet 2 other Mountain George cousins from Fulks Run, Thelma Showalter & Cammie Fulk.  Cammie & Thelma also learned they were cousins - they didn't know they were both in the Mountain George line.



For a couple photos, see my Facebook photo album.  My husband Dan is our usual photographer and takes great candid shots, but unfortunately he was sick this year and couldn't attend.



Thank you to all who attended, and a big thanks to my family members and friends who helped with set-up and clean-up.  Hope to see all of you next year.

Pat