Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Benefit Singing in Blackwater
There's an ad for a Benefit Singing in today's Powell Valley News...
Osborne Chapel Church in cooperation with Blackwater Volunteer Fire Co. will sponsor a benefit singing for the family of Amber Anderkin, fifteen-year-old cancer patient of Blackwater who will be traveling to St. Jude Hospital, Memphis, on August 4 for extensive surgery and treatment. The benefit singing will be held at the Blackwater Volunteer Fire Co. building on Saturday, July 30 at 7PM. All area churches, gospel groups, and individual singers are invited to participate. Food will be available beginning at 6PM.
Anyone wishing to donate, who cannot attend the benefit singing, may send donations to: Mrs. Joyce Neeley, Clerk & Treasurer, Osborne Chapel Church, (Amber Anderkin Fund), 164 Neeley Drive, Blackwater VA 24221. For more details or information, please call Mary Ruth Davidson (346-1539), Katie Osborne (346-3026) or Mitzi Jones (346-1731).
Osborne Chapel Church in cooperation with Blackwater Volunteer Fire Co. will sponsor a benefit singing for the family of Amber Anderkin, fifteen-year-old cancer patient of Blackwater who will be traveling to St. Jude Hospital, Memphis, on August 4 for extensive surgery and treatment. The benefit singing will be held at the Blackwater Volunteer Fire Co. building on Saturday, July 30 at 7PM. All area churches, gospel groups, and individual singers are invited to participate. Food will be available beginning at 6PM.
Anyone wishing to donate, who cannot attend the benefit singing, may send donations to: Mrs. Joyce Neeley, Clerk & Treasurer, Osborne Chapel Church, (Amber Anderkin Fund), 164 Neeley Drive, Blackwater VA 24221. For more details or information, please call Mary Ruth Davidson (346-1539), Katie Osborne (346-3026) or Mitzi Jones (346-1731).
Blackwater to be featured on Internet Talk Radio
Blackwater, Virginia will be one of the topics to be featured on the "Appalachian Knowledge Economy" talk radio show on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 9AM (Eastern time). To listen to the live broadcast, go to www.voiceamerica.com and click on "Business."
The talk radio show will include interviews with the following Guests:
THEME: Arts, crafts, festivals & heritage
GUESTS:
9:02am - Jack Goins www.jgoins.com Melungeon Researcher, Rogersville TN – The VA/TN Melungeons
9:18am - Lindy Turner www.vacationaqt.com The Appalachian Quilt Trail, TN/VA – a back roads barn-hopping tour
9:33am – Nancy Garrettson www.abingdonartsdepot.org The Arts Depot, Abingdon VA – artisans, year-round studios
9:48am - Debby Loggans www.roundthemountain.org ‘Round the Mountain, Abingdon VA – artisans and crafts
Date: August 2, 2011 – 9:00AM EST
Episode Title: Arts, crafts, festivals & heritage
Episode Description:
Sustainable development community models often begin with community arts, crafts, culture, music and heritage celebrations. These festivals can help to nurture a shared sense of place, build pride in heritage, and expand civic engagement. Current ecommerce offers instant access to global markets for artisans, crafters, and musicians. Could future kcommerce offer better global markets for historians, bloggers, and poets? What if the emerging Appalachian knowledge economy could create community knowledge centers as valued community assets? Like festivals, could that also encourage a shared sense of place and pride in heritage? Join the dialogue and tour through Appalachia. We will begin in Blackwater, Virginia with fiber to the home, the Melungeons, and the dulcimer. We will travel the back roads on a barn hopping tour. We will visit down home festivals and even an artisan gateway. Come, get a taste of authentic Appalachia and imagine the emerging Appalachian knowledge economy.
For more information about the Appalachian Knowledge Economy Internet talk radio show, go to www.voiceamerica.com and click on "Business." Then scroll down and click on "Shows." Then scroll down and click on "Appalachian Knowledge Economy."
In addition to the live broadcast, VoiceAmerica will post an archived file of the show on their website, so that people can listen to the show afterwards, at their own convenience.
Joan
www.blackwaterva.org
The talk radio show will include interviews with the following Guests:
THEME: Arts, crafts, festivals & heritage
GUESTS:
9:02am - Jack Goins www.jgoins.com Melungeon Researcher, Rogersville TN – The VA/TN Melungeons
9:18am - Lindy Turner www.vacationaqt.com The Appalachian Quilt Trail, TN/VA – a back roads barn-hopping tour
9:33am – Nancy Garrettson www.abingdonartsdepot.org The Arts Depot, Abingdon VA – artisans, year-round studios
9:48am - Debby Loggans www.roundthemountain.org ‘Round the Mountain, Abingdon VA – artisans and crafts
Date: August 2, 2011 – 9:00AM EST
Episode Title: Arts, crafts, festivals & heritage
Episode Description:
Sustainable development community models often begin with community arts, crafts, culture, music and heritage celebrations. These festivals can help to nurture a shared sense of place, build pride in heritage, and expand civic engagement. Current ecommerce offers instant access to global markets for artisans, crafters, and musicians. Could future kcommerce offer better global markets for historians, bloggers, and poets? What if the emerging Appalachian knowledge economy could create community knowledge centers as valued community assets? Like festivals, could that also encourage a shared sense of place and pride in heritage? Join the dialogue and tour through Appalachia. We will begin in Blackwater, Virginia with fiber to the home, the Melungeons, and the dulcimer. We will travel the back roads on a barn hopping tour. We will visit down home festivals and even an artisan gateway. Come, get a taste of authentic Appalachia and imagine the emerging Appalachian knowledge economy.
For more information about the Appalachian Knowledge Economy Internet talk radio show, go to www.voiceamerica.com and click on "Business." Then scroll down and click on "Shows." Then scroll down and click on "Appalachian Knowledge Economy."
In addition to the live broadcast, VoiceAmerica will post an archived file of the show on their website, so that people can listen to the show afterwards, at their own convenience.
Joan
www.blackwaterva.org
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Blackwater Melungens
Blackwater Melungens
This article, a reprint in 1948, talks about “black-water Springs,” an area which is known today as Blackwater. There have been many references by various Melungeon researchers over the years to this article. I have copied a portion of the article below and have listed the website where Joanne Pezzullo has posted the article with a helpful introduction.
“It was reprinted from the Knoxville Register September 6, 1848 quoting from the Louisville Examiner. (We are sorry to have lost the name of the southern paper from which this is taken.)
We give to-day another amusing and characteristic sketch from a letter of our intelligent and sprightly correspondent, sojourning at present in one of the seldom-visited nooks hid away in our mountains.
You must know that within ten miles of this owl's nest, there is a watering-place, known hereabouts as 'black-water Springs.' It is situated in a narrow gorge, scarcely half a mile wide, between Powell's Mountain and the Copper Ridge, and is, as you may suppose, almost inaccessible. A hundred men could defend the pass against even a Xerxian army. Now this gorge and the tops and sides of the adjoining mountains are inhabited by a singular species of the human animal called MELUNGENS.
The legend of their history, which they carefully preserve, is this. A great many years ago, these mountains were settled by a society of Portuguese Adventurers, men and women--who came from the long-shore parts of Virginia, that they might be freed from the restraints and drawbacks imposed on them by any form of government.
These people made themselves friendly with the Indians and freed, as they were from every kind of social government, they uprooted all conventional forms of society and lived in a delightful Utopia of their own creation, trampling on the marriage relation, despising all forms of religion, and subsisting upon corn (the only possible product of the soil) and wild game of the woods.These intermixed with the Indians, and subsequently their descendants (after the advances of the whites into this part of the state) with the negros and the whites, thus forming the present race of Melungens.
They are tall, straight, well- formed people, of a dark copper color, with Circassian features, but wooly heads and other similar appendages of our negro. They are privileged voters in the state in which they live and thus, you will perceive, are accredited citizens of the commonwealth. They are brave, but quarrelsome; and are hospitable and generous to strangers. They have no preachers among them and are almost without any knowledge of a Supreme Being. They are married by the established forms, but husband and wife separate at pleasure, without meeting any reproach or disgrace from their friends. They are remarkably unchaste, and want of chastity on the part of females is no bar to their marrying. They have but little association with their neighbors, carefully preserving their race, or class, or whatever you may call it: and are in every respect, save they are under the state government, a separate and distinct people. Now this is no traveller's story.
They are really what I tell you, without abating or setting down in aught in malice. They are behind their neighbors in the arts. They use oxen instead of horses in their agricultural attempts, and their implements of husbandry are chiefly made by themselves of wood. They are, without exception, poor and ignorant, but apparently happy.”
http://www.historical-melungeons.com/littels.html
This article, a reprint in 1948, talks about “black-water Springs,” an area which is known today as Blackwater. There have been many references by various Melungeon researchers over the years to this article. I have copied a portion of the article below and have listed the website where Joanne Pezzullo has posted the article with a helpful introduction.
“It was reprinted from the Knoxville Register September 6, 1848 quoting from the Louisville Examiner. (We are sorry to have lost the name of the southern paper from which this is taken.)
We give to-day another amusing and characteristic sketch from a letter of our intelligent and sprightly correspondent, sojourning at present in one of the seldom-visited nooks hid away in our mountains.
You must know that within ten miles of this owl's nest, there is a watering-place, known hereabouts as 'black-water Springs.' It is situated in a narrow gorge, scarcely half a mile wide, between Powell's Mountain and the Copper Ridge, and is, as you may suppose, almost inaccessible. A hundred men could defend the pass against even a Xerxian army. Now this gorge and the tops and sides of the adjoining mountains are inhabited by a singular species of the human animal called MELUNGENS.
The legend of their history, which they carefully preserve, is this. A great many years ago, these mountains were settled by a society of Portuguese Adventurers, men and women--who came from the long-shore parts of Virginia, that they might be freed from the restraints and drawbacks imposed on them by any form of government.
These people made themselves friendly with the Indians and freed, as they were from every kind of social government, they uprooted all conventional forms of society and lived in a delightful Utopia of their own creation, trampling on the marriage relation, despising all forms of religion, and subsisting upon corn (the only possible product of the soil) and wild game of the woods.These intermixed with the Indians, and subsequently their descendants (after the advances of the whites into this part of the state) with the negros and the whites, thus forming the present race of Melungens.
They are tall, straight, well- formed people, of a dark copper color, with Circassian features, but wooly heads and other similar appendages of our negro. They are privileged voters in the state in which they live and thus, you will perceive, are accredited citizens of the commonwealth. They are brave, but quarrelsome; and are hospitable and generous to strangers. They have no preachers among them and are almost without any knowledge of a Supreme Being. They are married by the established forms, but husband and wife separate at pleasure, without meeting any reproach or disgrace from their friends. They are remarkably unchaste, and want of chastity on the part of females is no bar to their marrying. They have but little association with their neighbors, carefully preserving their race, or class, or whatever you may call it: and are in every respect, save they are under the state government, a separate and distinct people. Now this is no traveller's story.
They are really what I tell you, without abating or setting down in aught in malice. They are behind their neighbors in the arts. They use oxen instead of horses in their agricultural attempts, and their implements of husbandry are chiefly made by themselves of wood. They are, without exception, poor and ignorant, but apparently happy.”
http://www.historical-melungeons.com/littels.html
Thursday, July 21, 2011
cemeteries, coon hunters & snake chaps
There's a little team of folks working on creating online Blackwater cemetery directory this month. I'm out taking photos in Blackwater. I call it "cemetery hopping." We're gathering GPS coordinates, and writing down directions. We are using all available information from the Lee County Historical Society Cemetery Directory series and the courthouse deeds records. There are atleast 63 cemeteries in Blackwater. We are learning that one cemetery can have more than one cemetery name. For example, the Sarepta Cemetery is also known as the Tomlinson Family Cemetery. The panoramic views from these scattered cemeteries are stunningly beautiful... I am enjoying the adventure across the valley. I've learned that local coon hunters know where old cemeteries are located up on the ridges. I've also learned that should I venture up the mountain with a coon hunter guide, that I might need to be wearing "snake chaps." I've never heard of "snake chaps." Apparently, as they were described to me, they are leather and you wear them over your jeans/boots, so that when a snake does bite you when your walking in the woods, it can't get through the outer leather layer. Well, I've never said that the cemetery directory could become a comprehensive list. I am not going to produce a photo of every tombstone in Blackwater. However, with some snake chaps and a coon hunter tour guide, I'd certainly enjoy the hiking and taking photos in some of Blackwater's forgotten cemeteries, high up on the ridges. Wonder if the farmers coop store, Southern States, in Jonesville sells "snake chaps." I do LOVE living in Lee County. :) www.blackwaterva.org
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Blackwater book available
At the reunion, I saw a very nice book available for sale. It is styled like an annual for the Blackwater High School Class of 1961. The book was put together this year and includes some 2011 photos from around Blackwater. The book project, which began as a gift for an older relative, was put together by DeBord Photography. For more information, contact leann@debordhome.com or call (423) 276-0649.
July & August workshops
BLACKWATER COMPUTER CENTER OFFERS CLASSES
Computer and Internet training workshops will continue through August 4, 2011 at the Blackwater Computer Center on Mondays at 11:00AM and Thursdays at 7:00PM.
On Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 7:00PM instructor Joan Minor will be teaching “Introduction to the Knowledge Economy.” The workshop will focus on how the Internet can bring about a whole new economic framework and what the emerging knowledge economy offers to rural communities and residents.
On Monday, July 25, 2011 at 11:00AM instructor Joan Minor will be teaching “Work from Home Online.” The workshop will not only identify legitimate opportunities available now, but also emphasize how to recognize work-from-home scams.
On Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 7:00PM instructor Joan Minor will be teaching “Using the Knowledge Economy.” The workshop will focus on new ways of securing and performing work in the emerging knowledge economy.
On Monday, August 1, 2011 at 11:00AM instructor Joan Minor will be presenting “Appalachia on the Web.” The workshop will reveal how the Appalachian region and culture are characterized through various websites on the Internet.
On Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 7:00PM instructor Joan Minor will presenting “Blackwater Online.” Anyone with any information regarding cemeteries in the Blackwater area is encouraged to attend, so that the Blackwater cemetery information can be placed onto the Blackwater website. Blackwater genealogy information could also be included. The Blackwater website is located at www.blackwaterva.org. Joan Minor will lead the one-hour cemetery information gathering activities as part of a “Blackwater Online” workshop. The workshop will include a visit to the Blackwater community website section where the cemetery information will be made available.
For additional information, contact Joan Minor in Rose Hill at 445-4600.
Computer and Internet training workshops will continue through August 4, 2011 at the Blackwater Computer Center on Mondays at 11:00AM and Thursdays at 7:00PM.
On Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 7:00PM instructor Joan Minor will be teaching “Introduction to the Knowledge Economy.” The workshop will focus on how the Internet can bring about a whole new economic framework and what the emerging knowledge economy offers to rural communities and residents.
On Monday, July 25, 2011 at 11:00AM instructor Joan Minor will be teaching “Work from Home Online.” The workshop will not only identify legitimate opportunities available now, but also emphasize how to recognize work-from-home scams.
On Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 7:00PM instructor Joan Minor will be teaching “Using the Knowledge Economy.” The workshop will focus on new ways of securing and performing work in the emerging knowledge economy.
On Monday, August 1, 2011 at 11:00AM instructor Joan Minor will be presenting “Appalachia on the Web.” The workshop will reveal how the Appalachian region and culture are characterized through various websites on the Internet.
On Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 7:00PM instructor Joan Minor will presenting “Blackwater Online.” Anyone with any information regarding cemeteries in the Blackwater area is encouraged to attend, so that the Blackwater cemetery information can be placed onto the Blackwater website. Blackwater genealogy information could also be included. The Blackwater website is located at www.blackwaterva.org. Joan Minor will lead the one-hour cemetery information gathering activities as part of a “Blackwater Online” workshop. The workshop will include a visit to the Blackwater community website section where the cemetery information will be made available.
For additional information, contact Joan Minor in Rose Hill at 445-4600.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Computer Center Operating Hours
I received another call today from a Lee County resident interested in using the Blackwater Computer Center. So I thought I'd post the operating hours up here again.
The Blackwater Computer & Internet Center is located on State Route 70 in the same building as the Blackwater post office. The center has 10 computers and highspeed Internet available. The center is free and open to the public.
The operating hours are:
Mondays: noon - 6PM
Tuesdays: noon-5PM
Wednesdays: noon-5PM
Thursdays: 1PM-7PM
Fridays: 10AM - 5PM
Saturdays: 10AM - 4PM
In addition, free computer and Internet training workshops are provided at the Blackwater Computer Center on Mondays at 11AM and Thursdays at 7PM. For more information, call Joan Minor at (276) 445-4600 in Rose Hill, Virginia.
The Blackwater Computer & Internet Center is located on State Route 70 in the same building as the Blackwater post office. The center has 10 computers and highspeed Internet available. The center is free and open to the public.
The operating hours are:
Mondays: noon - 6PM
Tuesdays: noon-5PM
Wednesdays: noon-5PM
Thursdays: 1PM-7PM
Fridays: 10AM - 5PM
Saturdays: 10AM - 4PM
In addition, free computer and Internet training workshops are provided at the Blackwater Computer Center on Mondays at 11AM and Thursdays at 7PM. For more information, call Joan Minor at (276) 445-4600 in Rose Hill, Virginia.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Blackwater Cemetery Directory
BLACKWATER CEMETERY INFORMATION REQUESTED
Anyone with any information regarding cemeteries in the Blackwater area is encouraged to meet at the Blackwater Community Computer Center (located on State Route 70 in the same building as the post office) on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 7:00PM so that the Blackwater cemetery information can be placed onto the Blackwater website. Blackwater genealogy information could also be included. The Blackwater website is located at www.blackwaterva.org. Joan Minor will lead the one-hour cemetery information gathering activities as part of a “Blackwater Online” workshop. The workshop will include a visit to the Blackwater community website section where the cemetery information will be uploaded during July 2011. Accordingly, the “Blackwater Online” workshop which will include a focus on building an online Blackwater cemetery directory.
Anyone with any information regarding cemeteries in the Blackwater area is encouraged to meet at the Blackwater Community Computer Center (located on State Route 70 in the same building as the post office) on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 7:00PM so that the Blackwater cemetery information can be placed onto the Blackwater website. Blackwater genealogy information could also be included. The Blackwater website is located at www.blackwaterva.org. Joan Minor will lead the one-hour cemetery information gathering activities as part of a “Blackwater Online” workshop. The workshop will include a visit to the Blackwater community website section where the cemetery information will be uploaded during July 2011. Accordingly, the “Blackwater Online” workshop which will include a focus on building an online Blackwater cemetery directory.
Friday, July 1, 2011
July 9, 2011 - annual Blackwater School reunion
According to an announcement in the Powell Valley News ----
The annual Blackwater School reunion will be held on Saturday, July 9, 2011 beginning at 10:00AM at the school building. All faculty, staff and alumni are welcome. Please bring a covered dish for lunch.
The annual Blackwater School reunion will be held on Saturday, July 9, 2011 beginning at 10:00AM at the school building. All faculty, staff and alumni are welcome. Please bring a covered dish for lunch.
Blackwater cemetery information requested
Do YOU have any Blackwater cemetery information??
Anyone with any information regarding cemeteries in the Blackwater area is encouraged to meet at the Blackwater Community Computer Center (located on State Route 70 in the same building as the post office) on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 7:00PM so that the Blackwater cemetery information can be placed onto the Blackwater website. Blackwater genealogy information could also be included.
The Blackwater website is located at www.blackwaterva.org.
Joan Minor will lead the one-hour cemetery information gathering activities as part of a “Blackwater Online” workshop. The workshop will include a visit to the Blackwater community website section where the cemetery information will be uploaded during July 2011. Accordingly, the “Blackwater Online” workshop which will include a focus on building an online Blackwater cemetery directory.
For additional information, contact Joan Minor in Rose Hill at tel (276) 445-4600 or email joan@appalachianresources.com
Anyone with any information regarding cemeteries in the Blackwater area is encouraged to meet at the Blackwater Community Computer Center (located on State Route 70 in the same building as the post office) on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 7:00PM so that the Blackwater cemetery information can be placed onto the Blackwater website. Blackwater genealogy information could also be included.
The Blackwater website is located at www.blackwaterva.org.
Joan Minor will lead the one-hour cemetery information gathering activities as part of a “Blackwater Online” workshop. The workshop will include a visit to the Blackwater community website section where the cemetery information will be uploaded during July 2011. Accordingly, the “Blackwater Online” workshop which will include a focus on building an online Blackwater cemetery directory.
For additional information, contact Joan Minor in Rose Hill at tel (276) 445-4600 or email joan@appalachianresources.com
July workshops schedule
Mondays 11AM and Thursdays at 7PM
FREE TRAINING WORKSHOPS AT
BLACKWATER COMPUTER CENTER ---
July 2011 -
Monday, July 4, 2011 – NO CLASS –HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!
Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 7:00PM – 8:00PM
instructor: Chelsey Rivers
topic: Building Dreams Online
Monday, July 11, 2011 at 11:00AM – noon
instructor: Chelsey Rivers
topic: Introduction to YouTube
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 7:00PM – 8:00PM
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: Blackwater Online
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 11:00AM – noon
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: How to Surf the Web
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 7:00PM – 8:00PM
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: Introduction to the Knowledge Economy
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 11:00AM – noon
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: Work from Home Online
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 7:00PM – 8:00PM
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: Using the Knowledge Economy
FREE TRAINING WORKSHOPS AT
BLACKWATER COMPUTER CENTER ---
July 2011 -
Monday, July 4, 2011 – NO CLASS –HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!
Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 7:00PM – 8:00PM
instructor: Chelsey Rivers
topic: Building Dreams Online
Monday, July 11, 2011 at 11:00AM – noon
instructor: Chelsey Rivers
topic: Introduction to YouTube
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 7:00PM – 8:00PM
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: Blackwater Online
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 11:00AM – noon
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: How to Surf the Web
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 7:00PM – 8:00PM
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: Introduction to the Knowledge Economy
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 11:00AM – noon
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: Work from Home Online
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 7:00PM – 8:00PM
instructor: Joan Minor
topic: Using the Knowledge Economy
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