Floyd Historical Society celebrates 50 years of local preservation
Joseph H. “Joe” Poff, a long-time Commonwealth’s Attorney (1932-1952) and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1958-1965), chaired the first meeting of what would become the Floyd Historical Society at the Floyd County Courthouse.
By Jean Thomas Schaeffer and Floyd County Historical Society
The Floyd County Historical Society turns 50 this year. On July 3, 1976, the Society’s founding directly tied in with Floyd County's celebration of America’s 200th birthday.
The day began with Girl Scouts singing "The Star Spangled Banner," and many people were in town for the day’s festivities. The Floyd Press had even printed a special Bicentennial edition that week which featured a copy of the Declaration of Independence content from early editions of the paper.
Herman Heafner, owner of the Western Auto store, was dressed in colonial garb and served as the Master of Ceremonies for the event. Women from around the county appeared in colonial dress, including Floyd County educator Effie Brown, who won the contest for best dress, having made her own for the occasion. Men of the county participated in a beard-growing contest that was won by Willard Clower.
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The wonderful, patriotic day ended with more music and fireworks. Some people in the crowd were heard saying, “We ought to organize a historical society."
The idea of starting a historical society was not new. In 1975, the Bicentennial Planning Committee, chaired by Bill Gardner, had formed. By the committee's second meeting, most of its members expressed an interest in forming a historical society for Floyd County.
Planning began in earnest after the Bicentennial celebration. Joseph H. “Joe” Poff, a long-time Commonwealth’s Attorney (1932-1952) and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1958-1965), chaired the first meeting at the Floyd County Courthouse. At least two follow-up meetings were held before the Society’s launch.
Marie Williams, a long-tenured teacher in the Floyd County public school system, was elected president; Jeannie O’Neill, secretary; and Zonie Spencer, treasurer. Effie Brown, a charter member of the Historical Society recalled that the individual elected vice-president had to leave the area because of a health condition and did not serve.
A three-person committee led by Effie Brown met at her home to draft the Society’s bylaws. Marguerite Tise and Eris Wade, two members who would make significant contributions to the Society over the years, were the other members of the committee. The 1976 bylaws were replaced in 2010 and continued to be updated.
Members of the initial Society learned that the New River Historical Society was purchasing the Alexander House for a museum in Newbern. The Floyd County Historical Society decided to operate as a chapter of the New River group and joined Montgomery, Pulaski, and Giles, and the City of Radford in that organization. The Floyd group was expected to raise funds for the regional historical society and its museum in Newbern. Dinners were held as fundraisers, and the Floyd group was expected to furnish homemade bread. Eris Wade provided the homemade butter.
The Floyd chapter was also expected to volunteer at the Newbern Museum and furnished items for the Floyd. The Civil War era drum, now displayed at the Ridgemont, was one of the loaned items.
Eris Wade became the Floyd chapter's second president and continued to serve until the late 1980s. Other local officers during that era were Jessie Heafner, Ruby West, Harriet Shank, and Genevieve Starkey.
In the early 1990s, it became difficult to support the New River organization from afar. An aging membership made getting to Newbern difficult, although two members, Pat Boothe and her daughter Sue Anne (a current member of the Board of Directors), often volunteered at Newbern on weekends.
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335 E. Oxford St.
Floyd VA 24091
During the ‘90s, dues were only $15, but $10 of that went to Newbern. With few new members, little remained to fund efforts in Floyd. At about this time, Marguerite Tise, who had recently retired and returned to Floyd, began providing Society programs specifically on the history of Floyd County. Effie Brown served as president through the 1990s, resigning in late 2003 for health reasons.
Jean Thomas Schaeffer had moved back to Floyd County in the late ‘90s and began to attend Floyd County Historical Society meetings. Taking office in January 2004 were Jean Schaeffer, president; Julie Hancock, vice-president; Sue Anne Boothe, secretary; Genevieve Starkey, treasurer; and Margaret Smith, program chair.
No longer able to provide help in Newbern, the membership voted to separate from the New River group. The Floyd chapter membership incorporated and obtained IRS recognition as a nonprofit, charitable corporation. This allowed tax-deductible contributions to the Society; dues stayed at $15.
The newly incorporated Society worked with Wanda Combs, editor of The Floyd Press, to publish stories about Floyd County's history. Combs, a native Floyd Countian, wrote many of these stories herself. The Society's membership grew to about 100 members, half of whom resided outside of Floyd County.
The Society’s first office was in the Blue Ridge Land building. The rental payment was made possible by a grant from the Larry Woodrow Vest Fund. The grant facilitated the Society’s ability to manage its acquisitions process, undertake important archival and preservation work, and maintain the collections through proper cataloging and storage. Digitization and better storage was partly grant-funded as well.
A computer, scanner, software, and shelves were purchased using the Vest funds. Kathleen Ingoldsby, hired as a part-time worker to catalog and digitize photographs, helped the Society with grant writing and took the lead in publishing brochures and the Society's first calendar. Mike Ryan also came on board to catalog documents and artifacts.
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Around this time, a partner organization was formed to preserve historical buildings in Floyd County. The Floyd County Historical Preservation Trust Inc., was established to protect real property in Floyd that was of significant importance to the county’s history. The initial board of directors for the Trust were Gerald W. Via, Micky Hatcher, John D. O’Connor Jr., Robert N. Shelor Jr., and Gino Williams.
The Ridgemont (located at 217 N. Locust St.) was obtained by the Trust with the intent of providing a museum home for the Society. The Trust also worked to preserve the Phlegar house, the Oxford Academy, and later Pine Creek Church and Cemetery.
The Ridgemont had been built by Dr. Martin L. Dalton as a local hospital. The building, believed to have been built by Lather Hylton, began its use as Floyd County's first hospital in 1914. On the main floor were an operating room with a cement floor, an examining room with the first x-ray machine in southwest Virginia, and a waiting room. Ten patients could be accommodated in beds upstairs.
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Dr. Silas T. Yeatts later purchased the hospital and practiced there until his death in 1948. In 1950, Marie Williams, the Society’s first president, purchased the Ridgemont and made her home there until her death. Her executor, following her instructions, conveyed the property to the Trust which retains ownership.
During Schaeffer's term as president, several projects were undertaken.
CEMETERY PROJECT: Floyd County has hundreds of small cemeteries – many forgotten. The Society encouraged persons knowing about remote cemeteries to provide the following: cemetery name, location, names and dates of those buried in the cemetery, person to contact with knowledge of the cemetery, and any other details. Even incomplete information was appreciated. Society member Genevieve Starkey spent much personal time locating cemeteries and determining GPS coordinates for them. She and others placed that information in a database and in books located in the Society's Ridgemont Museum.
CURTIS TURNER LEGACY: In 2004, the Society hosted a showing of the Curtis Turner film “Hey, Pops!” in the Floyd County High School auditorium. Curtis Turner’s daughter, Margaret Sue Turner Wright, attended and shared personal recollections about her famous Floyd County father and his racing career. Born in 1924, Curtis Turner developed his legendary driving skills on the winding roads of Floyd County and was instrumental in the creation of early NASCAR.
LOCAL BLACK HISTORY: African-American history in Floyd was another focus during that time, and much information was added to the Society's archives. Phyllis Campbell Cunningham, daughter of Harris Hart principal Walker Campbell, shared photographs and documents from their family as well as from students who had attended Harris Hart School.
YOUTH PROGRAMS: Society members encouraged participation by youth by supporting several projects. One project titled “Preserving the Past,” encouraged youth to interview older Floyd County citizens and to write essays based upon their interviews. That living-history writing project was done in cooperation with the public schools and sixth-grade teachers in Floyd, Check, Willis, and Indian Valley. The effort to incorporate local history into the school curriculum and get youth interested in local history led to an opportunity for inter-generational learning. Many essays were submitted and judged; a top essay prize was given at each school. The four winners read their essays as part of a Society program on Jan. 15, 2006.
In addition to the essay contest, the Society provided an original curriculum and arranged for a study of Floyd County history for all sixth graders at the four elementary schools. As a part of that, some Society members visited the elementary schools and taught the students about Floyd County's history. Concluding that study, sixth graders went on a field trip to Double Springs, a former schoolhouse. Dorothy Vest had attended Double Springs and her family had preserved the building and contents to convey what attending a one-room school had been like.
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS: In 2006, the Floyd County Historical Society celebrated two anniversaries: the 30th anniversary of the Historical Society and the 175th year since Floyd County was formed in 1831.
POSTAL PROJECT: As part of those anniversary celebrations, Maurice Slusher (retired postal carrier) and Dick Giessler (avid stamp collector) took the lead in organizing a postal project for the Society. Along with Fred Quesenberry (postal worker at that time in Floyd), they set up a temporary post office in the Floyd County Court House to allow persons to get letters stamped with an anniversary postmark and have them mailed on Jan. 15, 2006.
Slusher and Giessler also arranged for the design and sales of two commemorative envelopes in honor of the county’s 175th anniversary. One had a black-and-white pictorial cachet of John Floyd, the county’s namesake; the other had a colored cachet of an early Floyd County Court House, taken from a painting done by local artist Frances Harman. The postal project component for youth involved the design of the cancellation postmark.
Besides the postal project on Jan. 15, 2006 an anniversary program was held in the Courthouse with speakers, music, and youth recognitions. Gino Williams gave a detailed talk on the history of the county.
Following Schaeffer’s tenure, Judy Blackwell served for a short time as president. After her term, Rebecca “Becky” Weeks took over the president's duties and provided leadership in making themed exhibits a reality. The Ridgemont held its grand opening on May 29, 2010.
One of the major projects under Becky Week's leadership was a pictorial history, “Images of America: Floyd County.” Society members Gerald Via, Ricky Cox, Janet Keith, Connie Mitchell, Alice Slusher, and John Graham were among contributors to the book which was published in 2012.
Health issues led to Becky Weeks stepping down as president, and within a short period of time, the deaths of Becky, Gerald Via, Margaret Smith, and John Graham left a leadership void. Jim Slusher and Gino Williams were added to the Board of Directors with Gino replacing Becky as president and Jim serving as vice-president. During this transition period, Linda Wiseman was hired as the office manager, and Dan Feather joined the team for technical and graphic-design support.
Over the last several years, there has been a refocusing of the Society’s newsletter. Relaunched as “The Floyd Intelligencer,” the newsletter is more about Floyd County's history and less about the present. Connie Mitchell and Linda Wiseman work to create the yearly calendar with editing assistance from Janet Keith.
Beth Highly created a guided walking tour of the town that is held once a month during the summer. Highly and Myra Adams were instrumental in organizing a 100th anniversary celebration of NASCAR great Curtis Turner’s birth. Each year, the Society sponsors an art scholarship contest named in memory of Gerald Via.
All in all, the Society continues to be very active in all aspects of Floyd County’s history through its archives, publications, programs open to the public, and museum exhibits. The current exhibit at the Ridgemont, "250 Years of Patriotism and Service," provides a retrospective of military and civilian service from the Revolutionary War period to the present with its focus upon the sacrifices and achievements of Floyd County residents.
The Ridgemont is open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays, from noon until 4 p.m. at 217 N. Locust St. Admission to the museum is free. Learn more at www.floydhistoricalsociety.org. With additional questions, email info@floydhistoricalsociety.org.
