Watch repair nearly a forgotten art

Foye Lester Dawson and his army buddies are shown here in New Guinea, South Pacific, during War World II. Dawson kept this photo hanging above his worktable where he built and repaired watches.

Dawson used precise movements to move and manipulate the timepieces of the watches he worked on.

Featured in a display on the second floor of the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History is Foye Lester Dawson’s horology desk. Some of the tools he used in his trade on Virginia Street.

Foye Lester Dawson working at his desk in Mount Airy. In addition to his tools Dawson surrounded himself with photos of loved ones.

As time pushes forward, our collective technology advances at an ever-growing speed. Each year, new phones, computers, apps, and more are released, deeming their predecessors obsolete. It is so hard to stay ahead of the technology curve that many consumers have adopted the “if it’s not broke don’t change it” rule.

These advancements have also discarded some technologies and training as unnecessary. Craftspeople and workers such as cobblers, seamstresses, milliners, and watchmakers/repairmen are not as common as they once were. Mount Airy has a long history of these forgotten trades and arts, especially watchmaking.

Watches have been dangled from and worn on our bodies for centuries. The term “watch” appears in a multitude of documents through the years. For example, sailors and hunting parties took turns on “watch.” Many cities and towns also had watchmen, whose job it was to keep time for the community. This profession helped to keep work shifts running smoothly; they served as one big community alarm clock.

Some sources suggest that the first portable watches appeared sometime in the 15th century. These spring-driven watches needed to be wound in order to keep time. Issues such as accuracy and longevity drove horologists, a term used to describe individuals who work on timepieces or apparatuses professionally, to continue tinkering with the technology of the mechanisms themselves.

The late 18th century saw new technologies invented that aided in the cutting and manufacturing of time structural pieces that make watches work. Wristwatches entered the scene early, with Queen Elizabeth the first being gifted an arm watch in 1571, however wristwatches as we know them were not that common until military men began to wear them just after the First World War. Imagine, having to pull out a pocket watch on the battlefield.

After this time, almost everyone would have had a timepiece, and it was no easy job keeping the mechanisms working. At one time, after WW2, Mount Airy alone had more than 21 watchmakers. One of the more famed watchmakers from Mount Airy was Foye Lester Dawson (1923-2006).

Dawson owned and operated his own watch shop on Virginia Street in Downtown Mount Airy. Dawson’s Watch Repair Shop was in operation for 34 years. Inside you could see him with eyes sharp, working diligently over a timepiece illuminated by the work lamp he kept on his desk.

Dawson learned the horology trade through the North Carolina School of Watchmaking in Greensboro. After WW2 the U.S. Army offered training in various occupations for disabled veterans, watchmaking being one of those programs. He began his long career working in another shop for 23 years before venturing out on his own. His career in the watchmaking business lasted for 57 years. He was the longest, as well as the last, licensed watchmaker in Mount Airy.

While finding watchmakers on your Main Street is now uncommon, they still can be found. Several organizations still teach the art of horology, training up a generation of makers. The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute is dedicated to continuing the long history of horologists in the United States. North Carolina also has two chapters of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors that hold meetings to keep this history alive.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478, extension 229.

As time pushes forward, our collective technology advances at an ever-growing speed. Each year, new phones, computers, apps, and more are released, deeming their predecessors obsolete. It is so hard to stay ahead of the technology curve that many consumers have adopted the “if it’s not broke don’t change it” rule.

These advancements have also discarded some technologies and training as unnecessary. Craftspeople and workers such as cobblers, seamstresses, milliners, and watchmakers/repairmen are not as common as they once were. Mount Airy has a long history of these forgotten trades and arts, especially watchmaking.

Watches have been dangled from and worn on our bodies for centuries. The term “watch” appears in a multitude of documents through the years. For example, sailors and hunting parties took turns on “watch.” Many cities and towns also had watchmen, whose job it was to keep time for the community. This profession helped to keep work shifts running smoothly; they served as one big community alarm clock.

Some sources suggest that the first portable watches appeared sometime in the 15th century. These spring-driven watches needed to be wound in order to keep time. Issues such as accuracy and longevity drove horologists, a term used to describe individuals who work on timepieces or apparatuses professionally, to continue tinkering with the technology of the mechanisms themselves.

The late 18th century saw new technologies invented that aided in the cutting and manufacturing of time structural pieces that make watches work. Wristwatches entered the scene early, with Queen Elizabeth the first being gifted an arm watch in 1571, however wristwatches as we know them were not that common until military men began to wear them just after the First World War. Imagine, having to pull out a pocket watch on the battlefield.

After this time, almost everyone would have had a timepiece, and it was no easy job keeping the mechanisms working. At one time, after WW2, Mount Airy alone had more than 21 watchmakers. One of the more famed watchmakers from Mount Airy was Foye Lester Dawson (1923-2006).

Dawson owned and operated his own watch shop on Virginia Street in Downtown Mount Airy. Dawson’s Watch Repair Shop was in operation for 34 years. Inside you could see him with eyes sharp, working diligently over a timepiece illuminated by the work lamp he kept on his desk.

Dawson learned the horology trade through the North Carolina School of Watchmaking in Greensboro. After WW2 the U.S. Army offered training in various occupations for disabled veterans, watchmaking being one of those programs. He began his long career working in another shop for 23 years before venturing out on his own. His career in the watchmaking business lasted for 57 years. He was the longest, as well as the last, licensed watchmaker in Mount Airy.

While finding watchmakers on your Main Street is now uncommon, they still can be found. Several organizations still teach the art of horology, training up a generation of makers. The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute is dedicated to continuing the long history of horologists in the United States. North Carolina also has two chapters of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors that hold meetings to keep this history alive.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478, extension 229.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a periodic column in The Mount Airy News featuring commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

All students in the community deserve excellent education opportunities. As school districts compete for students, an unusual approach is found in Mount Airy to embrace all students no matter where they attend school. Mount Airy City Schools (MACS) believes that every single child in its community deserves to be prepared to graduate with the work-force and problem-solving skills necessary to succeed. This is regardless of whether they attend a private school, charter school, homeschool, or innovative traditional public school.

“Choosing Mount Airy City Schools is the best decision we have made for our child,” states a homeschooling family who has partnered with the system. In a recent visit from The Innovation Project (TIP), a non-profit organization that supports 17 school districts across the state, Mount Airy City Schools shared its collective vision. TIP has provided tools to districts that help them reach all children in their community with tools such as locating homeschool networks, gathering addresses, and contacts for homeschool families. TIP believes as a core value that every child is capable of reaching their full potential regardless of where they attend school. TIP has helped Mount Airy schools succeed in this endeavor. Mount Airy partners with many homeschoolers and has brought back more than 50% of students who have chosen charter school previously. This non-judgmental approach helps families make good decisions about where to attend school and helps create a family-school partnership creating success for their children.

On this visit to Mount Airy, attendees from 12 other school districts embraced the vision of creating a “hub of the community” in our schools. The group saw this in action starting with a visit to the Community Central Office. This office was recently renovated with money from the Surry County Board of Commissioners creating a control center over the past two years where meals, technology, and supplies were taken out to families during COVID. The office brings a lot of partners into this space including Surry Sunrise Rotary, The Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, and other community groups creating a beehive of activity in the office serving others. TIP attendees toured this facility seeing where backpacks are filled and stored, food is taken in and sent out to families, and a presence of Surry Community College exists teaching college courses on our campus.

TIP and Mount Airy have been long-time partners working on innovative initiatives. One most recent was the beginning of a “micro-school” for thecity This is a small, 20-member school that allows students to learn at home most of the week. These students meet virtually with a certified teacher each day and come together once a week to conduct a “place-based” lesson. This hybrid approach helps students learn science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics lessons together such as planting a flower garden, cooking a meal, learning to swim, visiting the Greensboro Science Center, and spending time with the Surry Arts Council. During the TIP visit, students from the micro-school were on campus and showed the attendees their lesson that included creating a playground on paper, measuring and building a 3D model of the playground before bringing their ideas to life and sharing those out.

Visitors were so impressed that they wanted logistical information to see if a micro-school would work for them. One third grade micro-school parent noted, “Jackson truly loves the micro school. It has helped his reading improve over the last couple months. When I have any questions, his teacher is always quick to answer. I would recommend the MACS Micro-School to anyone. Not only is it a great school, but it has become a family and I truly appreciate his teacher for being so good to my child.”

Another component the city school’s vision to be the hub of the community was the description of the free summer enrichment experiences. In addition to typical summer school and athletic camps, Mount Airy offers more than 50 STEAM enrichment experiences. Over half of the students in the district attend a summer opportunity. This helps minimize the notorious summer slide and keeps students and families engaged with the school family. Program offerings include Baking Bears Camp, Camp for Mad Scientist, Preparing College Applications Camp, and many other engaging themes for students.

Our tour group made its way through the Blue Bear Bus that is used throughout the year and the summer to take STEAM on the road. The Blue Bear Bus, a vision of Polly Long and Jon Doss, takes technology, wifi, hands-on STEAM activities, meals, and love to the neighborhoods. When children see the Blue Bear Bus coming they know a day of fun is ahead. Attendees were extremely interested in this innovation and looked to replicate it in their communities.

The group then headed to Mount Airy High School where STEAM teacher Garrett Howlett and students showcased the Aviation Science and Drone program. Students shared all of the companies in the community that use drones and held a drone demonstration. Students Allie Bowers, George Kriek, Owen Greenstreet, and Jesse Bilyeu have earned their Part 107 small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) Pilot’s License. They can now fly drones for commercial purposes. Various administrators and teachers from other districts were excited and impressed to see how the students are prepared for careers.

The trip concluded with a visit to the Blue Bear Cafe, where students from the Occupational Course of Study class served cookies and specialty drinks. Student speakers shared their recent trip to Wilmington where they attended a TIP event and were tasked with the challenge of informing school districts how schools could improve. They shared testimonials of how powerful it is for students to be able to share strategies and ideas with district leaders to impact change in their own district. The Blue Bear Cafe also houses the entrepreneurship program that allows students to become entrepreneurs in high school. These students are part of the YESurry competition where they can pitch their idea to a pretend funder. The winning pitch does in fact receive thousands of dollars to begin their business. This partnership was made possible by a connection to NC State through TIP. Curriculum was provided between NC State and Will Pfitzner, a local entrepreneur who has also taught the class. Mount Airy City Schools visited NC State to see their entrepreneur lab and program and has one of the first high school entrepreneur programs in the state.

This event at the Blue Bear Cafe brought to life the joint mission of TIP and Mount Airy schools to make sure students’ voices are at the center of conversations and that innovative programs that are unique and different change districts for the positive. This event highlighted the impact of school districts, families, and community partners working together so that every child will graduate prepared to enter the workforce and live a life filled with success.

On Memorial Day we remember those who have died in military service to this nation, its allies, and ideals. We think of rows of white marble crosses, cemeteries decorated with small fluttering flags. We think of the sacrifices made, our eyes welling with tears and our throats growing tight at the thought of the young men and women who pay the price for our collective freedoms.

They have made it possible for us to enjoy life in our hometowns. As they struggle in the hardships of the frontline, we move through a mundane world, complaining about price hikes, or how our favorite team lost the game. In America we are so insulated from the horrors of war it’s sometimes easy to forget the realities our service personnel deal with on a daily basis. We find out about their deaths days or weeks later.

The Korean War was a vicious conflict almost lost in a century of influential military actions and tremendous economic growth. But 70 years ago hundreds of young men and women from this region served in those unforgiving hills. Today we remember a few who never returned.

What began as a civil war between communist North Korea and the Democratic south soon boiled over into what many people saw as a proxy war between the USSR and the USA. The third major military engagement in 35 years, the Korean War raged in a land most knew little about.

All the while life continued on the home front. Here is a look at what was happening back home, here in Surry County, along with significant events related to the war.

June 25, 1950 – Soviet-backed North Korean soldiers invade the Western-allied Republic of Korea. The North Carolina congressional delegation unanimously supports President Harry Truman’s orders to deploy troops.

What began as a civil war between the Communist north and the Democratic south, soon boiled over into what many people saw as a proxy war between the USSR and the USA. The third major military engagement in 35 years, the Korean Conflict raged in a land most knew little about …. All the while, life continued on the home front.

August 1950 – The Central Telephone Company, based in Mount Airy, is granted permission to raise rates across the region from Mount Airy to Boonville, North Wilkesboro to Yadkinville.

The Bright Leaf Drive-In opens, dramatically changing the local teenage social scene.

A polio outbreak has shuttered Wythe County, Virginia, causing the town’s baseball team to withdraw from the Blue Ridge League. The Bassett, Virginia, team steps in as the deep-seeded rivalry between Mount Airy’s Graniteers and Elkin’s Blanketeers keeps fans riveted.

The Surry County Selective Service Board reopens its office in the courthouse. They ask all to “register immediately after their (18th) birthday” and those who are already registered to update their information if they have moved or married since.

The local National Guard heavy artillery unit, the 426th, is given a 30-notice for mobilization.

American is returning to the battlefield.

Surry County men were not part of the first call in the draft for the Korean conflict. There had been a delay in getting the office reactivated but would be expected to send draftees in the second call.

Some, however, were already there.

Sgt James Crouse, 21, Marine, killed Sept 26. – State Highway Patrolman JP Rhyne of Mount Airy knocked on Claude and Gladys Crouse’ door with news no parent wants to hear. The family home was just across the Alleghany County line in Ennice. He was the eldest of the Crouse’ four children, named for his grandfather, Jim Crouse, who lived at Fisher’s River near Lowgap on old Hwy 89. He’d already served three years in the Marines and reenlisted in November.

Crouse was the first Alleghany County soldier to die in Korea. More than 177,000 North Carolinians served in the war, with 784 killed and 201 listed as either prisoners of war or missing in action.

January 1951 – Mount Airy breaks ground for the Reeves Memorial Community Center.

The Surry County Chapter of the Gold Star Mothers is founded, an organization for mothers of soldiers killed in action. The Mount Airy News reported more than 50 county mothers were known to be eligible from World War II losses at the time.

Corp. Winfred Nelson Dawson, Jr., 18, Air Force, killed Jan. 1 – One of nine children born to Winfred and Nellie Dawson of Ararat, Virginia, he was part of the storied 335th Fighter Squadron.

August 1951 – Mount Airy’s First Baptist congregation launches a major building program.

Pvt. Samuel Carlise Hamlin, 21, Army, Killed Nov. 21 – Part of Gen. MacArthur’s 1st Cavalry, Hamlin was posthumously awarded the Silver Star “for gallantry in action” in the Chorwon region of Korea.

April 1953 – Surry authorities struggle to bring a rabies epidemic under control.

Pvt. Merlin Marshall, 21, Army Medic, Missing in Action April 18 – One of the region’s last casualties, Merlin was last seen attending his fallen comrades of the 7th Infantry Division. His remains were never recovered, and he was presumed dead the next year. The White Plains High School graduate is remembered in the National Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu where the names of nearly 30,000 military personnel Missing in Action or Lost at Sea are inscribed.

May 1, 1953 – Mount Airy’s Martin Memorial Hospital is destroyed by fire.

The war was fierce but stagnant much of the time as troops dug in to hold ground, often in brutally cold temperatures, sometimes as low as 25 degrees below zero. Hostilities dragged on until July 1953 when an armistice was signed, and an uneasy peace was reached.

Often called the Forgotten War, the war seems lost in history between the better-known WWII and Vietnam. It is time we remember. The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History has very little information about anything to do with the Korean War and those who served.

If you have photos, letters, mementos, or family stories about people who served in this war, consider contacting curator Amy Snyder. Such items can be scanned or recorded so future generations understand the price of freedom.

Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a volunteer for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History with 22 years in journalism before joining the museum. She and her family moved to Mount Airy in 2005 from Pennsylvania where she was also involved with museums and history tours.

Often History, with a capital H, is seen as highly academic. We, as humans, often overlook or dismiss day to day activities as historical; we discard little moments like fool’s gold to make way for the 24 karat events that are televised, tweeted, posted, and spread in mass media without truly seeing that these little experiences sometimes shine brighter.

Through the years, The Mount Airy News has documented the big and the small detailing the life of its readers and beyond. Vintage copies of the newspaper are treasure chests of local history. Some copies have small sections titled “Looking Back” that detail events from 25 and 50 years ago, much like the “Our History” columns do today. Here are some findings from the 1972 May issues.

Originally published May 16, 1947, 25 years ago in 1972, and 75 years ago this month, one blurb read: “Joe Dobson has sold his café business, operated as Main Street Grill to Neil Hennis and Lum Robertson who are now in charge of the place. Dobson is now spending this week catching up on fishing in the local stream.” With no Facebook to check in on our friends, local residents were informed via the newspaper. Social gatherings and events were shared in print, just as we do today. In an issue published on May 2, 1972, an observation was noted that on May 4, 1922 “Miss Fulton, Hedrick, and Bacon of the high school faculty and Mrs. Moorefield and children are camping at White Sulphur Springs.” A simple camping trip that is now 100 years was immortalized in print. Friends and family used this information to plan visits and outings. Granted this is much slower than our instant messaging now but it still got the job done.

Sometimes the news was so shocking that it was published outside the local sector. On May 23, 1947, a piece was entered about Sheffield, England. “Entering a dentist’s office to have a tooth pulled, George Henry Davison, 60, was given an anesthetic. He woke up a few minutes later with his teeth intact and found the dentist dead. He had suffered a heart attack.” After 25 years this type of story was still in favor to be printed.

Another story, originally printed on May 4, 1922, and is now 100 years old communicated that “The brick building on Moore Avenue formerly occupied by Billie Kings Cleaning and Pressing Business has been leased by J.L Banner and turned into an ice cream factory.” Now, if that’s not newsworthy, I don’t know what is.

So many other stories and community events have been recorded for all to see. If you ever find yourself wanting to step back in time and see what everyday folks in our area were interested in all you need to do is browse the newspaper archives, most of which are available online.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229

A large, four-story building stands on the corner of North Main and East Oak Street in downtown Mount Airy, at 252 North Main Street. The building has occupied this corner for more than a century and has withstood all the changes that have occurred on the streets surrounding it.

Now known as the Main Oak building, and constructed sometime between 1905 and 1910, it has gone through countless renovations and changes, yet still retains many of its original details, such as its arched windows on the upper floor and its iconic, large storefront windows.

One of its early incarnations was as the F. L. Smith Hardware store. With the town of Mount Airy in boom and various industries springing up, there was high demand in the town for building supplies. As such, hardware stores became ubiquitous along Main Street. F. L Smith Hardware benefited greatly from all this new industry. The building then changed hands to Holcomb Hardware, and then over to Midkiff Hardware.

Its owner, John H Midkiff knew the building well, having been a resident of Mount Airy for the previous 21 years, and was an employee of F. L. Smith Hardware. In this incarnation, the store sold everything from wagons to tobacco and farming supplies. Under John Midkiff’s ownership, the store expanded, adding on a large storage warehouse located at the rear of the store, and also installed a modern (for its era) sprinkler system on the four floors of the building, making it the first store in town to have this fire prevention method.

Along with the flourishing business that the building housed, it also saw its share of the darker side of life. During the 1920s, Dr Harvey R. Hege’s practice was located on the second floor of the building, with Holcomb Hardware below. The dentist had lived and practiced in Mount Airy for more than 25 years and was by all accounts had many connections to the community and was very well respected.

Dr. Hege also flourished professionally. With the addition of a new X-ray machine in his office, the Mount Airy News wrote in a 1921 article that “with this addition to his already modernly equipped office Dr. Hege can now boast of one of the most completely equipped dental parlors in the state.”

However, what the dentist would become notorious for was his involvement in the murder of Curry Thomas, a Virginia farmer, in 1936. Just one month before his death, Thomas had married his wife Elise, who had previously worked for Dr. Hege at his practice. When they received a package in the mail, the couple assumed it was a wedding present. Instead, when they opened it, they set off the bomb that was inside, killing Thomas and severely injuring Elise.

Clues from the crime scene eventually led investigators in northwestern North Carolina, and to Dr. Hege. The dentist owned the very same typewriter which police were able to work out had written the shipping label of the deadly package. It is also said that Dr. Hege went right downstairs from his office and bought the materials for the package from Midkiff Hardware.

Dr. Hege denied all involvement and claimed he was away fishing at the time the package was sent, but his alibi soon proved false, and he was arrested.

However, before the case was brought to trial, Dr. Hege committed suicide in jail.

Legend has it that this unassuming building was at one time home to Mount Airy’s only speakeasy. In order to gain access, visitors were said to have to make their way to the top floor via a freight elevator. Not a sophisticated piece of machinery by any standard, the elevator was operated by a rope which would start and stop it. Once the rope had hopefully been pulled at the right moment to get out onto the third floor, visitors would be greeted by a small hallway, with a door with a small slot in it at the end of the hall. If the person looking through this slot approved of you, you were let in.

The elevator was the only way in or out of this building, so one night, when a party in the speakeasy was in full swing, and the rope for the elevator came loose, stranding the elevator in the basement, the visitors had no exit. There was no phone on this floor, in keeping with the secrecy of speakeasy and the cover story of it being used for storage, so the party-goers resorted to opening a window and yelling into the street for help. Unfortunately, the late hour meant the only ones still out on the street were the same people they were hiding from; the cops. We don’t hear any stories of the speakeasy after this point, but we can guess what happened.

Today, the building still stands on its corner, watching the hustle and bustle of Main Street. While the stories about the building have largely faded away, the building remains solid and standing, a testament to its varied history.

Katherine “Kat” Jackson is an employee at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. Originally from Australia she now lives in Winston-Salem. She can be reached at the museum at 336-786-4478.

With spring time comes tourists returning during the warm season. As much as I love to see families enjoying Main Street, the visitors I most look forward to are actually the thousands of birds who stop by. Many of us enjoy seeing new birds at our feeders, like tiny warblers and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Blue Grosbeaks, and even Scarlet Tanagers.

More than a hundred species of birds migrate through and to our region every spring, and though we all enjoy seeing the new addition to our feeder or on a walk, watching these birds has a rich history in our community. Did you know that International Migratory Bird Day is celebrated every year on the second Saturday of May? This holiday is celebrated all throughout North and South America, and North Carolina is certainly no exception.

This region is important to migrating birds during both the spring and fall. During the spring, thousands of birds leave their winter homes, ranging from South America all the way up to the far southern states of the US, and head north, hoping to find plenty of food and a good nesting spot. During their fall migration, we see other types of birds migrating from the north to find warmer weather during the cool seasons.

These birds come through this region for many reasons. We are a part of a long-known migration route for many birds, and some use the mountains to help navigate. The mountains and waterways also provide lots of food and nesting opportunities, and even events such as storms bring them through the area.

The movements of these birds have been noted for hundreds of years in this region. More than 350 years ago, the Saura tribe was known to hunt migrating birds for food, tools, and to wear. Some of those birds you can still see today, such as Thrush (Swainson’s and Wood are both still popular here) or maybe even a Snow Goose if you are very lucky nowadays. Not all of the birds they would have observed are still around today, though, with the infamous passenger pigeon being the prime example.

Early European settlers also observed and hunted migrating birds, more than 250 years ago. Moravian settlers were recorded as being especially fascinated with “exotic” migrants such as the Whippoorwills, which “calls only at night;” a fascination many of us here still share. They also relied on migrating birds as a food source, such as wild geese and the passenger pigeon. They would go from hunting these passenger pigeons by the thousands each winter to witnessing their extinction. In the fall of 1760, men in Wachovia hunted 1,200-1,800 pigeons in a single hunt one night. Here in Surry County in 1842, a flock roosting over four square miles stayed 17 nights. By the late 1800s, they would be gone from North Carolina. By 1914, the last passenger pigeon, which was kept in the Cincinnati zoo, died and the species was gone forever.

Modern groups would soon follow in the footsteps of past bird migration observers, but with the hope of conserving species rather than for hunting. In 1902, the Audubon Society of North Carolina was founded, and during this time, bird watching became a popular hobby as concern for losing species grew. Soon after, with the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway here and a rising interest in parks, the Carolina Bird Club was founded in 1937. This initial club had members from all over the state, including Winston-Salem and surrounding communities, and they were dedicated to studying and conserving birds.

Bird watching is still a beloved hobby in this region, and the number of groups and opportunities has only grown. One of our most prominent groups is the Forsythe chapter of the Audubon Society, and they notably do migrating hawk counts every fall throughout the region, but the Pilot Mountain watch is a personal favorite. Every year, starting in September, counters will be out at Pilot, counting migrating hawks and birds of prey as they fly south. A few rare finds, such as Northern Harriers, have been seen, but broad-winged hawks are what we get the most of. Every year, thousands of these birds pass by Pilot, and with the local record being more than 10,000 passing by in a single day in 1993.

For centuries, the people of Surry County and the surrounding communities have watched these birds as they migrate through. Over the years, the intent has changed from hunting for nutrition to watching and conservation, but one thing hasn’t changed — we are simply fascinated with them. So, set up a backyard feeder or get out to a local park this spring (and fall) because you never know what new bird could be visiting.

Cassandra Johnson is the director of programs and education at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She has been an avid bird-watcher for more than 10 years.

“The ‘Y’ described as ‘the finest in the South,’ will be open to public inspection at the formal opening and the YMCA officials cordially invite the people of Mount Airy, Surry County, North Carolina, and Virginia to attend the long-awaited event. Over 3,000 people are expected to attend.” Mount Airy News, May 2, 1952.

May 4, marks 70 years since the Reeves YMCA center opened for the first time near downtown Mount Airy.

The recreation site located at 113 S Renfro Street has boasted decades of programming for children and adults alike. Families all over Surry County and beyond have used the resources of this community gathering place to stay in shape, participate in group sports, and cool off on hot summer days.

John M. Reeves, a Mount Airy native, donated $150,000 to a local YMCA project that was being promoted by J.F. Yokley within the county. This campaign began in 1943 and received attention and donors from all over the Mount Airy community and surrounding towns and communities.

The groundbreaking for the building happened seven years later. Some news articles consider Dec. 20, 1950, as the official date; others say Jan. 30, 1951. Regardless of the start date, this new project was projected to contain some of the newest technology and modern designs. The original building plans outlined a four-story structure; these were soon changed because of the availability of materials and other resources due to war-time constraints.

In February of 1952, the Reeves YMCA was granted a charter from the national organization, allowing the YMCA organization to run the center, while Reeves Community Center still owned the facility. The following months saw multiple news articles about the community center’s programs, staff, facilities, and funding. A large formal opening for the facilities was held on May 4, 1952, at 3 p.m. and this celebration even included a large parade down Main Street where many kids rode their bicycles. The project total came in at around $600,000 and had a lot to show for it.

Once opened, Reeves housed a state-of-the-art snack bar that served sandwiches and soft drinks, a dining space, and a fully equipped kitchen. The 10 Brunswick bowling alleys, a leader in the bowling industry, cost 10 cents for kids willing to set their pins, 15 cents for league games, and 20 cents for normal recreation. Two outdoor pools offered swimming and exercise and countless other equipment was added to the gymnasium and other rec rooms.

Through the years, some things have changed. In 1984, $1 million was raised to renovate the then 32-year-old building. The bowling lanes, snack bar, and kitchen were removed, as well as other edits helped to keep Reeves up to date on more modern recreation trends. In 1995 one of the two pools was enclosed to create an all-weather swimming facility.

Sometime during the 1970s, the original agreement with the YMCA was dropped and Reeves Community Center was self-operated. In 2005 the City of Mount Airy incorporated the Reeves Community Center under the umbrella of the Mount Airy Parks and Recreation. Today the center boasts more than 60,000 square feet of recreation space, including basketball courts, pools, cycling rooms, a sauna, and more. The facility is still offering group events, such as camps during the summer. Stop by sometime this week and say happy anniversary or simply get your sweat on.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478, extension 229.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a feature of The Mount Airy News, presenting commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

Tucked between the campuses of Surry Central High School and Surry Community College lies an unassuming plot of land that has the power to grow into a powerful educational tool.

The site is the future location of a new Live Animal Lab, further solidifying the partnership between Surry County Schools and Surry Community College. The facility will be used by teachers at Surry Central High School in the Animal Science program and instructors at Surry Community College in the Animal Science degree program to offer hands-on instruction on raising calves, goats, piglets, and other small animals. Students from the high school and college will receive valuable training in the field of animal science in this cooperative lab.

While at the groundbreaking, I had the opportunity to speak with students from both programs and the excitement was immeasurable. The Surry Central FFA attended in their corduroy jackets and regaled me with stories about their classroom lessons, and how they will be further enriched by having the opportunity for additional hands-on instruction. One student, in particular, Morgan Hodges mentioned that students will get to experience the “real-world scenario of operating a farm which is going to be crucial to lifelong career success.”

This statement struck me. Though Morgan will be graduating this year and not get to experience the lab for herself, she was passionate about the project. She understood the impact this lab will have on future students and help shape their career aspirations. Other students felt the same, most emphasizing the opportunity for hands-on learning and putting concepts learned in class into practice.

It is my belief that this facility will serve as an inspiration to our students and future farmers. This facility will give them the chance to test concepts, gain real-world knowledge, and expose them to career opportunities they may not have thought about previously. Agriculture is still the number one industry in Surry County and the state of North Carolina, which makes this project an investment in the future of the industry.

I’d like to thank Dr. David Shockley and everyone at Surry Community College for their shared vision on this project, along with our team at Surry Central High School. The hard work of everyone involved in this project is going to truly make a difference in the lives of students and our community.

Surry County Schools is seeking additional funding to complete the agriculture barn project. If you would like to get involved to help make this vision a reality, please contact Ashley Mills, managing director of the Surry County Schools Educational Foundation at 336-386-8211 or by email at millsa@surry.k12.nc.us. The agriculture barn will undoubtedly mean a great deal to both agriculture programs at Surry Central High School and Surry Community College, the FFA, and the community.

Overlooked and taken for granted, it surrounds us in our daily lives. Often viewed as a messy and potentially stinky or costly necessity, it keeps us healthy and promotes cleanliness — plumbing!

Indoor plumbing in the United States is a relatively new innovation. Here in Mount Airy, it took many years and set-backs to give us the water quantity and quality we have today.

Water is a finite resource; the fresh water on Earth today is the same water the dinosaurs drank millions of years ago. The water cycle recycles the fresh water across and above the surface of the Earth; it evaporates, condensates, and precipitates.

Water is also one of the few substances that can exist in the three states of matter; solid as ice, liquid as water, and gas as water vapor. Earth is 75% water and of that percentage only about 3% of it is potable. Aquifers are a water bearing layer of rock sandwiched between other rock layers that are watertight and under pressure. When a well is dug, it taps into an aquifer and the unequal pressure forces the water to the surface. There are six artesian wells in the Lambsburg, Virginia, area. Springs on the other hand are naturally occurring instances of water rising to the surface and one such local spring is White Sulphur Springs.

Before the implementation of plumbing, early settlers would gather water from wells, ponds, or streams to use for cooking, cleaning, and bathing. Often, people would get sick from stagnant water due to the buildup of bacteria.

When nature called, the closest tree or quickly dug hole did the trick. Later, outhouses were developed. Always located downwind from the house and away from water sources, the outhouse gave shelter, privacy, and cleanliness for people to do their business. To wipe, people would use corn cobs, lambs ear, or the trusty pages out of an old magazine before rolls of toilet paper as we know it were invented.

The extent of indoor plumbing at this point was a chamber pot, which had to be emptied every day. It took many years for all homes in the United States to get indoor plumbing, and many homes in rural areas were still using outhouses well into the late 1900s.

A dependable supply system for water in Mount Airy took years to establish; a city sitting atop granite made for a challenge. In 1903, the city purchased water from a deep well owned by the Rucker-Witt Tobacco Company. Soon it was discovered it could not sufficiently supply water to the city and in 1904 construction began on a town well. This well could not meet the needs of the community as well, so a watershed (a land area that channels water from rain and snow to moving bodies of water such as creeks, streams, and rivers that eventually makes it to outflow points like reservoirs, bays, and the ocean) located on Creasey’s Branch, was chosen.

A dam was built at the location and a pipe line was laid to carry the water to a holding tank in town. This worked until 1910 and a new dam location, at Tumbling Rock Branch, was chosen to supply water. In 1913, the first water filter plant was built. Due to substantial drought during the 1920s, the city decided to tap water from Lovills Creek to add to the water supply, since it was the best source of water.

The City of Mount Airy operates two surface water treatment facilities. Operation at S.L Spencer Water Treatment Plant began in the late 1920s and is located along Lovills Creek. Operation at Doggett Water Plant began in 1970 and is located along Stewarts Creek, the largest water source for Mount Airy. There are 200 miles of water lines and 150 miles of sewer lines in the city.

When you walk down the street, take a walk along the Greenway, cook, do laundry, or go to the restroom, consider the pipes running beneath and how they bring fresh, local, clean water to you.

Justyn Kissam is originally from Winston-Salem and now lives in Mount Airy. She works at the Surry Arts Council.

Easter, no matter when it falls, marks the coming of spring and has been celebrated with exuberance for centuries. Many bits of farm wisdom revolve around “the signs” and Easter is an important milepost in the signs.

Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox which means the earliest it can happen is March 22 and the latest is April 25 in any given year — prime planting time for a number of garden staples.

The Herbalist Almanac of 1931, from the Dault and Lucy Sawyers homeplace in Shoalsm advised under the heading, “When to Plant, Harvest, etc. By the Moon and Moon Signs” that the lucky days for April that year were the second and third which were noted to be the best days to marry that month. That was Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

“Plant Irish potatoes, bed sweet potatoes, put out onion sets, sow onion seeds, beets, turnips, carrots, parsnips radishes, artichokes and peanuts on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 13th and 14th,” it continued. Soil was considered to be the most fertile on Good Friday according to wide-spread folk wisdom of the time.

Although the region had members of the Jewish faith, and, presumably, other non-Christian religious faiths from Colonial times, the vast majority of people across Surry, Stokes, Carroll in Virginia, and other counties of the area identified as some form of Christian. The earliest newspapers we have from the region give a great deal of ink to Easter folklore and religious reporting.

As Holy Week approached, newspapers of the region carried reporting on special worship services, commercial sales, community events, and outings.

In the early- to mid-20th century the churches of Mount Airy coordinated union Good Friday services, moving between churches from one year to the next and all the pastors taking a role in the three-hour services. In April 1943, when so many local men and women were engaged in the Second World War, the words spoken from the cross were presented as lessons on pardon, human care, loneliness, and human need.

Easter Sunday, of course, was, and still is, a heavily attended church service. The Elkin Times ran an article on April 15, 1897 about the Moravian tradition of musicians greeting Easter morn with brass instruments calling worshippers to the cemetery in the chill dark hours to commemorate the empty tomb. “The procedure of the service is so timed,” it read, “that the musico-prayerful (sic) rejoicing reaches its highest expression just as the sun rises.”

Other denominations tended to have quieter and later services with everyone wearing their literal ‘Sunday Best.’ Many letters and news articles from the 1800s through the 1950s indicate Easter services involved more music or other changes to the usual Sunday services.

“Rev. G.M. Burcham preached to 800 people at the Rock House on the Brushies, five miles from Jonesville last Sunday,” reported The Elkin Times April, 22, 1897. Though we find such reports over several years, we can’t find clear explanations of what this place was or where it was.

The holiday drew adult children to celebrate with family whether they were traveling in from a new home in Greensboro or Tennessee or coming from Salem Academy or Fort Bragg. Such trips were often noted in the Mount Airy News or Elkin Tribune.

If Holy Week involved more-than-usual time in church, Easter Monday took a turn to the secular. The Danville Reporter noted in 1909 a Stokes County superstition that working on Easter Monday would mean the loss of a cow so folks played with determination.

“Easter Monday promises to be more largely observed this year than usual in this part of the state,” reported the Twin-City Sentinel on April 9, 1914. “The events in different parts of the country will bring the people together for a day of social intercourse and can hardly fail to do good in that it will make the people realize more fully their oneness and engender a spirit of good fellowship.”

Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a local freelance writer, researcher, and genealogist.

A little more than two weeks ago, many of us got news we’ve all become familiar with, a tornado watch alert from the National Weather Service. That tornado watch turned into a tornado warning and an EF-2 tornado with winds reaching up to 122 miles per hour touched down outside of Hillsville, Virginia, in neighboring Carroll County, Virginia.

Like many families in the area that night, mine gathered in front of the television to watch the weather reports as we made plans about what to do if the power went out, roads were blocked, or a tornado actually touched down. Afterwards as I stayed awake listening to the wind snapping off branches outside, it hit me that tornado season had truly started.

Surry County actually ranks below average nationally in tornado occurrences, but we still have tornadic activity and a tornado season. Though spring is our official tornado season, they can happen any time of year. Surry specifically has a bit of history with late summer and fall tornados.

The tornado that touched down last month wasn’t the biggest we’ve ever had, nor was it the most powerful, the farthest traveled, or most destructive. But, to put it in perspective we didn’t begin keeping records of tornadoes until 1950 in the state of North Carolina (as well as much of the US). So, as we look back on the storm’s histories that have earned those accolades, recording weather history like this is still relatively new. I may not reference the biggest or strongest tornado that has ever occurred, but I can surely speak of the ones that we were able to record.

The only pre-database recorded tornado I could find for this area occurred in 1897. This particular twister hit the Mount Airy Furniture Co. which once resided where South Street is now. O. H. Yokley Sr. even recalled, “I remember that day; we had a privy (outhouse) next door to the packing room, and the storm blew it to the top of Bannertown Hill-about a mile and a half from here.”

Surry County is not prone to seeing very large tornados. EF-0 (40-72 mph winds) and EF-1 (73-112 mph winds) are the most frequent. The 2011 tornado that touched down in Cana, Virginia and destroyed a gas station on the side of U.S. 52 was an EF-0. Another local example of a small tornado is the 2010 twister that touched down on Highway 89 north of Raven Knob Boy Scout Camp that took down trees and caused minor structural damage.

One of the most memorable EF-1s happened in February 2016 when the community of Ararat, Virginia, just a few miles over the state line, was hit and hundreds of downed trees on the road along with multiple destroyed buildings were reported.

We every once in a while get an EF-2 (113-157 mph winds) like we did last month. Another example is the 2013 tornado that touched down in neighboring Stokes County on May 24, 2017, and left more than 900 homes without power. The September 2004 tornado in Henry County, Virginia (north of Martinsville) was also an EF-2 and arguably caused the most monetary damage of any tornado within this area, racking up $53.8 million worth of property damage to the city as it wrecked dozens of cars, hit a factory, and then barreled into a residential area.

EF-3 tornados (158 – 206 mph winds) are more of a rarity for the area. The closest ones we have had were three in the Winston-Salem area between 1985-1989, but the most historic happened an hour east in Rockingham County on March 20, 1998. This particular tornado was one of ten to drop in the state that day, and at roughly half a mile wide it traveled twelve miles reaching wind speeds of 170 miles per hour destroying 500-600 homes, countless businesses, and killing two people while injuring dozens more.

No reported deaths have been recorded due to a tornado in Surry County from what I’ve found, but we did have an out of season November twister in 1992 that resulted in 13 people being injured which set the record for the most injuries due to a tornado event.

There have been more than 40 reported tornados in Surry County since 1950 when we started truly keeping records, countless more before that, and all of our neighbors in surrounding counties have shared the same fate. The one thing they have always all had in common? They all thought it would never happen to them.

During the historic 1998 Rockingham County tornado their fire chief, Jake Hundley, was reported saying “The size and the magnitude of that tornado was just unexperienced around here. Nobody had ever seen anything that big.”

It’s an important time to remember that we may not have these events often, but they are a part of our history, and they can happen in our communities. So, the next time you get those National Weather Service alerts about tornados remember your history and stay safe.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a periodic column in The Mount Airy News featuring commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

Mount Airy City Schools (MACS) has a motto to “Lead – Innovate and Serve.” We are very thankful for the innovative programs we have in our district. Our staff has the systemic understanding that when resources are scarce you look for outside resources. Over the past six years MACS has secured more than $4 million in grants. Many of these allow students access to cutting edge technology, workforce development programs, summer and afterschool programs, as well as incredible resources.

Teachers also benefit from additional pay to help with innovation, national and state training for innovative programming as well as the ability to partner with experts from around the country. These grants are usually start up grants and sustainability of the programs is built in from the beginning of the programs. The innovation will continue for generations based on these tremendous student-centered opportunities.

The Advanced Teaching Roles ($900,000) is a competitive grant that allows us to support students that may have gotten behind during the past two years. Our teachers can take on leadership roles and influence classrooms across the grade level. This grant builds on those teachers who are among the highest in growing children and use their expertise throughout the school.

Two of the grants support safety on our campuses. The School Safety Grant ($160,000) and School Safety SRO ($74,915) allows us to expand cameras and keyless entry into our schools. We were also able to expand to an elementary School Resource Officer who is able to build relationships with students, teach positive behavior, and maintain support for administrators. Reaching out for grants and creatively using outside resources has helped us keep our schools safer.

The Summer Bridge Academy ($47,377) and Summer Career Accelerator ($33,280) put an emphasis on our summer programs. We understand that many homes need support during the summer because parents are working. We have a wide array of offerings for students, usually more than 50 summer camps that are free to students and families. This is in addition to summer school where we focus on remediation or catching students up.

A robust summer program free to students, providing meals and transportation are critical for a high performing school district and thriving community. Mount Airy Parks and Recreation has been a wonderful partner in writing grants. They have helped secure grants that focus on summer programming, mentoring, and educational aspects of the community. Everyone working together can do great things for students.

Workforce development is critical for the community of Mount Airy. We want to make sure all children graduate with a plan and have success after high school in a career. The CTE Great Expansion Grant ($350,000) allows us to have an extra Career Development Counselor (CDC), Catrina Alexander, to expose all children beginning in the fifth grade to careers available to them.

These CDC positions including, Katie Ferguson, at Mount Airy High School show students how to use Xello, an online career exploratory platform, to narrow their interests and close the gap between students interest, readiness, and career availability in the region. These ladies set students up for a pathway of courses in Career and Technical Education as well as shadowing and internship experiences to find out how to match their passions with a lifelong career.

The Education and Workforce Innovation Fund ($180,000) supports SAFER Surry encouraging our students to go into careers in fire, police, and rescue. We know that public servants hold a special place in the community and are critical for Mount Airy. We want our students to understand these careers and see if they have what it takes to participate in these noble careers right here in our own town.

The Digital Learning Implementation Grant ($150,000) expands our understanding of how to use technology effectively. While we do not want students only on technology we know that almost every career now requires students to understand programming, web-design, complex databases, research analysis, and global communication that is only accessed through technology. Training for staff provides avenues to the world for students through technology. The staff need support with devices, training and experience to share this expertise with students.

Usually we are not able to access grants to support brick and mortar buildings but we have received an Athletic Facilities ($103,000) grant given out this year by the state. This is to help us keep our athletic facilities in great shape for our student athletes. The upkeep of the athletic facilities is much more than this grant but we are thankful for small amounts to help us keep HVACs, roofs, flooring, painting and other maintenance costs down for our athletic facilities.

Mount Airy City Schools partners with a lot of other educational non-profits and groups to do amazing things for students. We are currently involved in a General Assembly funded $8 million project that will build pathways for students to work in the high tech industry. The Innovation Project along with other districts in the state will partner with industry to provide opportunities for students from Mount Airy to go to work with partners specializing in high tech careers which will allow them to work here and partner with industries, such as Apple, throughout the world. These partnerships have also provided curriculum, resources and support from NC State and our entrepreneurship program as well as the ability to network with other innovative districts in North Carolina.

We are currently involved with grants totalling $1.8 million dollars. We have also applied for another $3.4 million in grants. We probably will not secure all of that funding but any funding above what the state provides will help students. While we have a futuristic vision for where schools will need to be tomorrow, we also have a vision for how to sustain programs started with grant funding.

We know that funds are not the solution for all educational issues, but if we have funds to invest in building capacity in our people innovation will be sustained for the next generation. We are thankful for Dr. Phillip Brown, Olivia Sikes and Penny Willard for their leadership in these grant areas. We are also thankful for a Board of Education which understands the need for a robust grant program.

If you are interested in hearing more about our programs please visit our website at https://www.mtairy.k12.nc.us/

“The gospel shows us a God far more holy than a legalist can bear and yet more merciful than a humanist can conceive.” – Tim Keller

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” – 1 Peter 2:9

Recently on Wednesday nights we watched The Chosen series. One of the things I like about that series is that it can help me to see something that has always been in the word of God in a framework that I had not realized before. I knew Jesus came to push back what was dark and that in His own perfect way fought against the brokenness of the world.

But in The Chosen I see that very clearly, but it strikes me that Jesus’ opposition isn’t coming from just one particular place, even though he is fighting one thing, it is actually coming from two places. The message and ministry of Jesus is at odds with Rome and at odds with the Pharisees. Jesus, intentionally and yet lovingly is pushing against both of those. He is pushing against one thing; he is pushing against unGodliness. But that one thing is showing itself in two different ways. It is showing itself as being anti-God and so Jesus confronts both; humbly, sacrificial, and lovingly.

He confronts Rome’s Godlessness. We know that his ministry confronts this because it is Rome that puts him to death. And we see Jesus’ ministry, both by himself and by his followers, call him Lord; an undeniably political theological term. His ministry preaches against the secular Roman culture that is all too prevalent in some of the churches New Testament letters find themselves in. It calls people to personally, culturally, lovingly fight against anything that would strip away the goodness of the reality of God.

This is not surprising. After all, if you have grown up around Christian culture or household you were taught how important it is to stand up for Jesus, and reject false doctrines of this world that say only the material matters, God is not real, or Jesus is not 100% God and 100% man. But Jesus does not just push against Rome; He pushes against the Pharisees.

The New Testament follows this example by not just pushing against Roman culture but also against religiosity. Rome was anti-God and the Pharisees were anti-God. Yes, they knew his name and they knew his word. They had learned about it since they were young, and had grown up in a culture steeped in it. And yet the way Jesus speaks to them absolutely says you do not know or represent the real God. Paul makes this same argument in the first century christian context of Galatians. Being furiously against demonic ideologies; and then telling us that demonic ideology is legalism, is Jesus plus, is seeking to measure up in works.

Satan is fighting in our current culture the same way he has always fought. From the very beginning when he deceived Eve he spoke half-truths that sounded right but in the end led away from God. And so what he may be doing now is pointing to one side of the aisle and saying look at how wrong they are and then whispering the lie in our ear “so the other side must be right.” “Look at how Godless that left side is; the other side must be correct. Look at how unloving and ungracious and unpeaceful that right side is; the other side must be correct.”

If we take an honest look at all of Jesus’ ministry and the whole of the New Testament, the reality we will be left with is the truth that Jesus does not belong to the left side or the right side of the aisle. He does not sit closer to one side of the voting platform than the other. No, Jesus Christ sits as king on his throne. Telling his followers what His kingdom is and what it looks like. Promising that this kingdom will come to fruition and asking those who carry his name and bare his mark live in the reality that he already made. Jesus is neither Democrat nor Republican. Jesus is king.

Often when we think of a unique mountain in our region, we automatically think of Pilot Mountain. However, rising above the treetops along the border of Alleghany and Wilkes counties is another mountain unlike any other in the area. A 25-mile long monadnock — an isolated hill, ridge, or erosion-resistant rock that stands in a level area of terrain — of granite, it is known as Stone Mountain and is located in Stone Mountain State Park in Roaring Gap.

An isolated mountainous area with bountiful natural resources, it is home to the Eastern Continental Divide. The first people in the area were the Cherokee and Shawnee, but the Great Wagon Road brought settlers of various European descent — English, German, Irish, French and Scotch-Irish — into the area during the late 1700s.

Alleghany County emerged from Ashe County in 1859 by an act of the North Carolina legislature. Within the county are seven townships and eight unincorporated communities with Sparta as the county seat. With the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the 1930s and the creation of paved roads, ease of travel to the county increased.

The natural beauty of the area made it a vacation destination. The unincorporated community of Roaring Gap was established in 1890 as a summer resort with the help of the Chatham family, of the Chatham Manufacturing Company.

Occupying more than 14,100 acres, Stone Mountain State Park has something to offer for all. The defining feature of the park today is the mountain itself. Rising 600 feet above the valley floor is the light gray granite dome. Created millions of years ago from molten magma, over time wind, water, and other forces eroded the overlying rock and exposed the outcrop we see today.

There are camp sites, nine trails for hiking and two for horseback riding, waterfalls, fishing, picnicking, and rock climbing. Ecologically diverse, various species of trees, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals live there.

There are also exhibits and historic sites. Sitting in the shadow of the mountain and built in the mid-1800s is the Hutchinson Homestead. Complete with a log cabin, barn, blacksmith shop, corncrib, and meat house, visitors can learn about the life and work of the settlers of the area. The homestead was restored in 1998 and has original furnishings.

When the area around Stone Mountain was first settled, there were more than 60 homesteads. Due to the isolated nature of the area, farmers were self-sufficient. However, as more settlers arrived, a community developed and by the mid-1800s schools, churches, and a post office had been established. The Garden Creek Baptist Church was established in 1897 and is one of the few original churches that hasn’t undergone major repairs or remodeling in the area.

In the 1960s, local citizens began efforts to establish a state park to protect the Stone Mountain area for future generations. They approached the North Carolina Granite Corporation, which owned a substantial portion of the area needed for the park, and the company donated the 418.50 acres that included the Stone Mountain to be used for the park. That land was in turn used as a match for federal grants from the Land and Water Conservation Fundand the Appalachian Regional Commission to fund the purchase of additional land from the Corporation.

Stone Mountain State Park was established in 1969 and in 1974 it was designated a National Natural Landmark, one of 13 in North Carolina. The National Natural Landmarks Program is administered by the National Park Service and sites are designated by the Secretary of the Interior. To be named, sites must contain examples of the nation’s outstanding biological and geological features. We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful, ecologically diverse historic area.

Justyn Kissam is the director of learning at Kaleideum in Winston-Salem.

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” – Hebrews 10:24-25

Around two years ago I held my first service in a pastoral capacity for Rocky Ford Christian Church and what I mean by held service is me preaching to a camera in my living room on live stream because COVID had become a reality. After the right amount of time we began to meet at the church but we continued to play it safe by staying outside with members in the vehicles and me behind a podium on the front porch area. Then after some more time we moved back inside and encouraged masks and social distancing and hand sanitizers and all those things.

I start this article by telling you this because it is important to remember and realize that this reality was true for some congregations and individuals before COVID and it is still true for some congregations and some individuals now. And so how do we lay the undeniably New Testament command for brothers and sisters in Christ to gather across such things?

One, I think we do so humbly. We remember that our circumstance is not everyone’s circumstance, and that what is going on in our local demographic is not what’s going everywhere; in our world, in our nation, or even in our state.

We also wrestle with this command individually, the same way we do with all of God’s commands. What does God’s command for us to gather look like for me? And although I have continued to speak in a way that is regarding one to two hour interactions one day a week this verse sits in a context in this book, and in the grand story of the New Testament of something far more.

The New Testament would call brothers and sisters in Christ to absolutely always meet Sunday morning. What it would call Christians to do is to do life with each other as seen in the book of Acts, as with Jesus with his disciples, and as implied with Paul with his churches, and this means two things at least: Time and authenticity.

If you’re going to do life with somebody it involves you doing real time with them. Twenty-first century America is a busy, busy place and there are lots of things we can do that all in all are really good. And are good for us. But very few of those things are biblical things. And almost none of them are commanded with the same emphasis we see the command to do life together. Family is good. jobs are good. Social engagement is good. But those things do not negate or contradict the command of the word of God for brothers and sisters in Christ to be together.

The other thing this must mean is be authentic. To do life together is to be absolutely real with them. I grew up in the church and have spent thousands of Sunday mornings in worship gatherings which means I have probably heard some variation of the question “How are you?” tens of thousands of times. But I can tell you that less than ten times have I ever heard anyone answer that question without a smile on their face.

It’s not easy to be authentic or to be real. And yet when we look at the example of Jesus and his disciples or the book of Acts we see real authentic Christians with each other. Brother and sister in Christ I am convinced by the Holy Spirit and the word of God that you and I will not be all of what God has called us to be if we are not doing life with others who are in Christ.

If this building could talk, what would it say?

The National Historic Preservation Act began sometime in 1966 and since then Americans have been diligently seeking out, protecting, and preserving historic buildings and homes. Surry County, established in 1771, is no different. Each town, community, and hidden spot has secret gems to unlock and discover; from small one-bedroom cabins to large Victorian homes, Surry has a lot to protect.

The alluring town of Pilot Mountain, established March 9, 1889, has its leading land marker of the great knob, however it also has a historic downtown that showcases many prominent buildings. The old Bank of Pilot Mountain is one of those.

Laura Phillips, a North Carolina Architectural Historian, called the bank building, “the most architecturally significant commercial structure in Pilot Mountain.” The two-story Queen Anne style building began to be constructed sometime during 1900. The Pilot Mountain Sanborn fire maps from September of that year show the building in place. The details on the map read “from plans,” indicating that construction had started but was incomplete.

Once finished the building at the corner of Main and Depot streets stood with a domed turret with an octagonal roof. The two Flemish parapeted gables, more round than square, feature several curves with an appropriate piedmont at their center. While the building is narrow on the Main Street side, the structure stands as a demanding presence compared to some of the buildings in the row. The second story windows offer up the same curve as the gables, while the bottom is square with quarry-faced granite sills. The building was, and still is beautiful to behold.

The building’s notations in the National Register of Historic Places does not state an architect or construction team, we only know that the building was purchased and constructed to serve as a bank for downtown Pilot Mountain.

The Pilot Mountain Bank and Trust Company was established in 1900 and served patrons by the corner entry, through the domed turret. The second floor of the building was occupied by different businesses and practices from 1900-1930; professional offices, apartments, and even a doctor’s office/ sanatorium resided above the bank.

The building also played host to The Denny Brother Furniture company that was accessible on the Main Street side of the property before 1910.

The first bank failed in 1910 and was replaced in 1914 with the Bank of Pilot Mountain which occupied the building until 1994. The Bank of Pilot Mountain opened a new location in 1984, operating the original 100 E. Main Street location as a branch until it was sold to non-bank owners. The building is now owned and operated by Thornton Beroth as an antique petroleum memorabilia museum which you can visit by appointment only.

Buildings such as the Bank of Pilot Mountain make up some truly rich history here in Surry County. Taking an in-depth look into these places helps us discover the lives our ancestors lived and how our history can truly change lives. I encourage you all to take a stroll down any Main Street in our region and look for the history. You never know what you may find.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a feature of The Mount Airy News, presenting commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

The intentional work that Surry County Schools has placed in our career pathways and hands-on classes has left our students prepared for today’s workforce. Because of classes taken while in high school, many students are showing up for their freshman year of college or their first day on the job with significant career and professional skills. At Surry County Schools, we are focusing on programs that lead to in-demand, high-wage jobs and preparing our students for whichever path they choose after graduation.

Through initiatives like Career and College Promise, work-based learning, and other Career and Technical Education courses, we empower students to be successful citizens, workers, and leaders. Educational program offerings include agriculture, business, finance, information technology, engineering, family and consumer science, health science, and much more. Along with these courses, students can also pursue internships and apprenticeship opportunities based on their interests. Students participating in middle and high school CTE programs have earned more than 1,200 credentials, including ServSafe, AutoCAD, CNA, Photoshop, OSHA 10, CPR / AED, first aid, and many more.

In middle school, we offer a career exploration course that exposes students to many different career pathways. All students have the opportunity to explore the world of engineering and problem solving through our pre-engineering (Project Lead The Way) courses and computer science through our Computer Science Discoveries courses. Additionally, we are excited to offer agriculture in middle school for all our students. Students have the opportunity to hear from local business and industry leaders about many different career prospects.

In high school, there are a wide variety of CTE opportunities for students. Through our agriculture pathway, students can pursue courses in animal science and horticulture. Those interested in a future career in business, finance, or information technology can take classes in business management, computer science, and digital media. For students interested in family and consumer science, the district offers courses in culinary arts, counseling and mental health, and education training. The Health Science pathway allows students to take biomedical technology, health sciences, pharmacy tech courses. There are also offerings in marketing and entrepreneurship, such as sport and event marketing. Students interested in the technology, engineering, or design pathway are encouraged to take the pre-engineering program (Project Lead the Way) course. Additionally, construction, masonry, and project management are available for those interested in trade and industrial education.

Agriculture is the number one industry in Surry County and North Carolina. By offering agriculture classes in all four of our middle schools, Surry County Schools is creating a solid foundation for skills students can learn in their future courses and exposing them to opportunities to advance in agricultural careers. Surry County Schools is fortunate to partner with Surry Community College and offer certificates in animal science and sustainable agriculture. Additionally, students have the opportunity to attend NC A&T University through a 1+3 locally developed diploma agreement with Surry Community College, which allows students to pursue many different pathways in the agriculture industry.

Surry County Schools has been on the cutting edge of exposing students to careers in agriculture for many years. The district has integrated animal science into agricultural programs and has opened animal science labs at all traditional high schools. East Surry and Surry Central High School students study poultry science because of a partnership with Wayne Farms, while North Surry High School students have pursued livestock science studies through a partnership with Farm Bureau of Surry. Currently, the district is working with Surry Community College on plans for a future joint-use facility that borders Surry Central High School and the college. Upon completion, this facility will be an outstanding opportunity for students at both institutions.

Students are also encouraged to look at the wide range of CTE student organizations available for participation. These organizations help students by allowing them to expand upon interests they have developed through CTE. These include Future Business Leaders of America, Future Farmers of America, Skills USA, Health Occupations Students of America, Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, and National Technical Honor Society.

CTE internships through Surry County Schools are directly related to both classroom instruction and the career path of the student. These internships include a variety of experiences aligned to the career interest of the student and can include: assignments such as a standardized reflective journal, a term project, and an exit presentation based on student goals and outcomes. The skills learned inside and outside of the classroom combined with goal-setting and periods of reflection create a unique experience for students working towards their careers.

Surry County Schools has also formed relationships with many local community and business partners, to secure internships and other work-based learning opportunities for students. Northern Hospital of Surry County has welcomed our interns and given them the vital hands-on experience with patients and equipment they will need to pursue their careers in the healthcare industry. The district has also had the pleasure of connecting with businesses such as Altec, Scenic Automotive Group, Surry Communications, Xtreme Marketing, and others who are invested in helping grow our student leaders.

Additionally, students can pursue additional internship opportunities through Surry-Yadkin Works. Surry-Yadkin Works is the first community-based internship program of its kind in North Carolina across a two-county region. This business and education initiative is the collaborative effort of 4 local public school systems across Surry and Yadkin counties, as well as Surry Community College with the goal to create a unique approach to a regional internship program. There are also partnerships with local businesses like Wayne Farms that bridge the gap between classroom instruction and 21st-century skills.

At Surry County Schools, we know that education and industry go hand-in-hand, and by working together, we can show the next generation of students what schools can and should be. The school system recognizes this link and understands that by investing in CTE programs, we are investing in the workforce and the Surry County of tomorrow. Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Good apprentices are likely to make good citizens,” and I wholeheartedly agree. The opportunities and skills learned through CTE and apprenticeship opportunities create a solid foundation for career success, lifelong learning, and good citizenship.

“Have you noticed that Jesus talked more about serving humanity than fulfilling your destiny?” – Naeem Fazal

And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” – Luke 3:10-11

The Bible calls us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and in the same passage it calls us to love our neighbor as our self. Now one way we see the Bible explain what this means is it’s continual call for us to be generous to our neighbor. We see this with Jesus’s story of the Good Samaritan — how he sacrifices his time, his money, his reputation to take care of this man who is near death. We also see when John the Baptist talks to a group listening to him preach, he tells them that if they have two coats, they should give one to the poor.

So, the universal biblical truth that we find all throughout scripture, and especially pointedly at New Testament believers in Jesus is that those who would call themselves Christians should be generous, overflowing or sacrificially loving to our neighbor.

What does that mean as we bring that forward nearly 2,000 years into our current culture and our current context? It means that as we live in one of the wealthiest places in the world, and as we have the freedom to work for a wage we are to freely and somewhat sacrificially give some of that away. Now I don’t know what the next week or months or years will look like for you and your pocketbook. I don’t know if they will be affected by things in this world far out of our control or not. I don’t know if your savings account or 401k will boom or take a massive hit because of the cost of living or any number of financial variables.

But what I do know is that the word of God has called me and you to be generous, and it does not stipulate the time. It does not stipulate our financial circumstances, it does not stipulate what our house looks like. So when things get lean it’s really easy for me to want to keep my second coat and stop being generous to those around me, but that is not the call of Christ. The generosity of Christ cost him his very life, and he calls you and I brother and sister in Christ to do the same. To voluntarily sometimes take up our cross, to die to comfort or even our own life for the sake of loving others.

Now what if these “others” are ungrateful or do not accept Christ? Well, once again in the example of Jesus — that did not stop him from being generous. Jesus heals ten lepers knowing that only one would come back. Their appreciation of Jesus as Messiah or even their appreciation of just what he had done for them was not the motivation for Jesus’ kindness. The underlying factors for his generosity was that he was generous and they were needy. And so fellow brother and sister in Christ, let’s model our savior and do the same. Let’s seek to be generous in loving our neighbor, making the only requirement that they are needy.

They say April showers bring May flowers, but I promise you there is a lot more work that goes into the process.

As warmer days become more frequent, some of us are thinking about outdoor planting, chores, and good ol’ summer fun. This was also true for many of our ancestors who worked the land in the gaps, hollows, and mountains of Surry and surrounding counties. To survive was to plan, a successful year was totally dependent on the readiness and preparedness of the farmer or planter. Traditionally, March is a little late to start getting ready for the forage and growing season, but better late than never.

Here among the lush evergreens and plentiful shrubs, an abundance of free food could and still can be found. Before diving further into the topic, it is important to note, never gather a plant unless you are 100% familiar with it. So many plants are deceptive and resemble tasty plants. Take for example the dandelion plant. While this plant is not native to North America it has been cultivated and used for its resources for centuries. The plant was brought to America by settlers and revered for its medicinal properties. Every part of the dandelion is good for you; the roots, leaves, and flowers. However, there is another plant called “catsear” that looks almost identical. One major way to tell them apart is to look at the stem; if it’s hollow inside, you are good to go. Dandelions fight high blood sugar, manage cholesterol, and reduce inflammation.

Many other plants, including dandelions, were harvested to make tinctures and tonics. Our ancestors knew how important it was to stay healthy during the planting and harvest season; with this in mind they would do everything in their power to stay fit including taking several tonics in the spring. Some common ones were sassafras or spicewood teas. Sassafras tea was consumed in the spring to “tone up the blood,” this native tree was considered a cure all, aiding in liver, stomach, and other ailments. Ramps, morels, meadow onion, nettles, and mustards were also gathered during the spring and summer season to add to or replace cultivated plants.

Warmer days also means bees. North Carolina and Virginia are home to more than 500 species of bees, mostly which are native. European honey bees were brought to North America sometime in the 17th century. Here in the hollow, bees were admired for their pollinating habits and some for their honey production; keeping honey bees close to crops and flowers was and is important to a planter’s success. Early spring is the time to feed hives that need extra food before the first pollen arrives. It is also time to make repairs to old boxes or beegums. Before bees were sold in boxes to beekeepers, our forefathers and mothers had to go hunting for bee trees or swarms. Late spring will see bees swarm to more favorable conditions. Many beekeepers search out these swarms to capture and give them a new home, keeping the history alive.

For what nature could not provide, homesteaders would buy from the vibrant pages of seed catalogs, local shops or pick from saved seeds collected from a previous harvest. In 1840 the first seed catalog was printed in America. These catalogs were distributed in January and February and offered a variety of heirloom and exotic seeds to farmers and gardeners. Careful planning and precision was put into crop placement and irrigation.

These are just a few of the preparations many of our ancestors took to get ready for the spring and summer seasons. I challenge you all to take up a spade or shovel and continue the hard, but highly rewarding work of our ancestors. I wish you all abundance and a happy spring.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a periodic column in The Mount Airy News featuring commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

Mount Airy City Schools (MACS) is ahead of the curve in academic preparation. We accelerate children at every level. “Acceleration” means that we allow students to move faster through the traditional curriculum and work ahead. This is important because the state standards are just a baseline for how much can be and should be learned at each grade level.

BH Tharrington Primary has a nurturing program. This helps all children find their area of giftedness. We have individualized instruction for all children working at their pace and exposing many students to “above grade level” curriculum. An individual pathway makes sure all students are able to move at a pace that is comfortable for them.

The Academically and Intellectually Gifted program at JJ Jones Intermediate identifies students in third grade for a separate setting in fourth and fifth grades. This allows the students to move at a much faster pace than the standard curriculum and allows them to explore topics beyond their grade level. Our teacher can also compact the curriculum to help all students go at a pace that may include several grade levels. We have specialized equipment that allows fifth grade students who qualify to attend a middle school course virtually with a teacher from Mount Airy Middle School every day. While many schools across the nation have cut gifted programming, we have expanded it.

Our MicroSchool has helped students who need to move at an even faster pace and who may be two grade levels ahead. The MicroSchool allows students to be at home learning online for part of the week and enjoy a “place-based” learning experience once a week. This year they have come together for STEAM activities and experiments and many environmental excursions. We may have a first grade student learning second or third grade concepts and working with students from upper grade levels each week.

Another program, Dual Language Immersion (DLI) is so popular that it often has a waiting list. This program allows students to be fluent in Spanish and English, taking Spanish a majority of the day in K-second grade and 50% of the day in third through fifth. The DLI program has now extended to middle school where students will take advanced courses in Spanish and learn to apply their Spanish in many ways throughout the real world.

The middle school acceleration model encourages students who are ahead in mathematics to take advanced courses beginning in the sixth grade.

Once students have entered the eighth grade they have many options. If they are ready to take high school courses for credit, we offer our High School Accelerate where English I, Math 1, Earth and Environmental Science, Spanish I, and American History I are taken during their eighth grade. They take these high school courses face-to-face with experienced and highly qualified teachers. We even have students who have virtually joined our high school sophomore courses to make sure they are not held back but pushed forward.

Our North Carolina Association of Scholastic Activities challenges all students and helps them stretch their academic skills. Mount Airy Middle School has been able to win the statewide cup and place every year because of the amazing students we have and how well they compete across the state.

Our summer programs allow for all students to explore their passions. The summer programs are built around the theme of STEAM and match the summer program to students’ natural interests. The program in the summer is an extensive menu of free summer programs and activities from kindergarten through twelfth grade. We encourage you to watch for the menu of options coming soon.

The last piece of our acceleration puzzle is the high school academic program. The many pathways to success allow for all students to be involved in honors and college courses. Ninety percent of our students attend a two- or four-year university and taking care of their general courses in high school can save them thousands of dollars. The support system at Mount Airy High School allows students to take Advanced Placement courses for college credit while giving the students the support they need to be successful in those courses. The College and Career Promise Courses provide the opportunity for all children to take courses through Surry Community College. The credits they receive help them with college success.

The career and technical education courses also provide many certification programs and exciting internships with businesses right here in our county. Students can learn to fly a drone, become a pilot, become an entrepreneur, create 3D models, design websites, explore all health science careers, and learn to cook. All schools get the opportunity to travel and our strategic plan encourages us to return to traveling outside of the state and country. Many of these trips have included trips to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and China. We can’t wait for our students to begin to learn outside the walls of our school again.

Our families love our ability to “accelerate” their children. We get feedback each year on this program and try to cater to the needs of students. We know every child is gifted, we want to find how they are gifted and use their educational support to match their gifts. If you are interested in our program please visit: https://bit.ly/3sYzcnf

For more information or if you want to become a Granite Bear please contact us and visit our website at : https://www.mtairy.k12.nc.us/

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” – John Piper

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” – Luke 10:27

A lawyer comes up to Jesus with a question. His question is “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus, who regularly answers a question with another question, asks him “What is written in the Law?” To this the lawyer answers with our verse up above; the Luke 10:27 passage. Jesus tells him that he has answered correctly. It is this answer that I want us to look at in detail. What exactly does it mean?

It means, in general, that followers of Jesus, Christians, are people that love God with all of who they are. God is the sovereign ruler of the universe and there does not exist a square inch of reality that is not his; this includes every bit of you and me. The reality of Christianity, real Christianity, is loving God means giving him everything we are. And everything we are includes our heart, soul, strength, and mind.

To love God with our heart means to be passionately in love with God. Being someone who loves God does not simply mean you believe the right things, nor that your love is an action. Loving God is doing the right things and love is action, but loving God is more than those things. To love God is to feel love for God. God’s call for all Christians is to be in love with him. To be head over heels, puppy dog, boy just discovered girls aren’t icky, heart beating out of your chest, sweaty palms, emotional love.

To love God with our soul means to put the hope of our eternal self in his hands. For as long as people have walked this earth we have wondered about eternity and our place in it. So we have sought to find, and came up with, a way to ensure that eternity favors us. Some have put that hope in science and some in false religions and cults, but the truth is we all put that hope in something. The Bible calls Christians to put that hope in God: To trust not in our own ability to ensure our eternal reward, but to trust in the sacrificial work of Christ on the cross: That he lived perfectly and died for my sins and that even though I should die because of my sins I now get the eternal life that he deserves.

To love God with our strength is to love God with what we do. Once someone becomes a Christian they are given a new heart that seeks to please the one who loves us most, God. The call to love with our strength is the command to love with our hands and our feet; to let the new heart of Christ flow into our actions. Christ, in affirming the lawyer’s answer, is saying that to be one of his is to do what pleases him and what he has called us to. And not to do it because we have to or because it earns anything. But to do it because that’s what love does. Love seeks to please its lover.

To love God with our mind is to seek to know God more. When we love something, truly and deeply love something, we want to know all there is about it. New relationships often start with long conversations over the phone, or now through Snapchat I guess, because each person wants to know more and more and more about the person of their affection. People who love football spend hours looking at stats of their favorite players. Baseball junkies pour over baseball cards. None of this is mandatory. Instead, it flows from a heart that is in love. Love seeks to know and understand. To love is to seek to better know him and better understand him. He is found most directly in his Word.

This lawyer rightly says that to inherit eternal life one must love God with their heart, soul, strength, and mind. One must love God with all of who they are. Do you have eternal life?

Charlie Shelton recently passed away at the age of 86, having lived his life building successful businesses and bringing great change in and around Surry County, alongside his brother Ed. Their family on both their mother’s and father’s sides had longstanding ties to this region, with their ancestors being some of the many early settlers who made their living off the land during the pioneer days.

James Madison “Matt” Shelton, the Shelton brothers’ grandfather, began life as a farmer, just like his father before him, but eventually found his calling as a master carpenter. It was this career change that brought the family into Mount Airy from its outskirts. The family purchased a few acres of land and a rickety old house, where Matt would put his carpentry skills to use, building upon the house to add rooms for his children. While living in this house, Matt’s son George Reid Shelton, known as Reid, attended Franklin School, located on Franklin Road in Mount Airy.

Charlie Lee Badgett was both a tobacco farmer and a blacksmith. He and his family lived and worked on their White Plains farm. The family had 11 children, including his third daughter, Bertha Lillian. From the Badgett family’s house, the Blue Ridge Mountains made up the skyline to the north, with Pilot Mountain being visible to the south. Badgett would grow his tobacco, toast it, before bringing it into Mount Airy where it would be sold for 25 cents for a pound.

Badgett’s farm thrived in the bustling tobacco industry surrounding Mount Airy. In the early 1890s, the town had as many as 21 tobacco factories. However, the factories were soon hit hard by the so-called “tobacco trust,” which monopolized the tobacco industry with James B Duke of Durham at its helm. By 1910, many of the former tobacco factories had been converted into textile mills, with Mount Airy making its foray into the industry of furniture manufacturing.

In 1926, Reid Shelton had just finished up his barber training in Charlotte, and soon had his own chair in a barber shop in Winston-Salem.

When Reid Shelton was 19 years old, he crossed paths with a girl he had briefly attended Franklin School with, Bertha Badgett. Speaking years later of the school, Reid recounted ”That’s where I picked her out but she doesn’t remember me.” Now young adults, they began dating and were married, surrounded by their family on the property of Charlie Badgett’s tobacco farm on Oct. 23, 1926.

The newlyweds lived in Winston-Salem for a time, before returning home to Surry County and to Franklin Street, right across the road from the school where their paths first crossed. Their first son, Charles Madison Shelton, named in honor of both of his grandparents, was born in the early hours of May 12, 1935. Charlie’s younger brother Edward was welcomed into the family not long after.

When Charlie was around 10 years old, his paternal father came to live with the family. The younger Shelton adored his grandfather, and learned the manufacturing skills that Charlie would later utilize to rise to success later in life, by following his grandfather to the factories where he worked. Growing up, Charlie would also work for his maternal grandfather on his tobacco farm.

As he grew, Charlie was constantly finding ways to make an honest profit, from collecting soda bottles that earned him a penny each in deposits, to building and selling lawn furniture with the scraps he got from the factory where his grandfather worked. Taking after grandfather Badgett, by the time he was 16, he had begun planting tobacco.

The Shelton brothers founded various successful construction businesses and established a thriving vineyard that was instrumental in the designation of the Yadkin Valley as a viticultural region, the first in North Carolina. To support the growing industry, they also supported Surry Community College in establishing what is now known as the Shelton-Badgett North Carolina Center for Viticulture and Enology.

They were also instrumental in the creation of the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, with the museum’s original first floor gallery, established through a major grant from the Shelton Foundation and dedicated in honor of the Shelton’s grandfathers.

Together with his brother Ed, Charlie would continue to tap into the spirit of innovativeness and industrialism that his ancestors drew upon to survive in the early days of settlement in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Katherine “Kat” Jackson is a part-time employee at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. Originally from Australia she now lives in Winston-Salem. She can be reached at the museum at 336-786-4478.

“Flowers are the music of the ground

From earth’s lips spoken without a sound.”

Flowers — they follow months of cold, snow, and unsocial weather. The long days are blessed with a rainbow of colors ushering in the growing season. Flowers bring joy without saying anything at all, or so we think.

Receiving a bouquet of flowers is a statement. This gift could mean: thanks, love, friendship, or sorrow, and if you understand the language of flowers, otherwise known as floriography, it could say lots more.

For centuries flowers have been admired for their uniqueness, beauty, and resilience. Giving bouquets of flowers became popular in the Victorian era. Communicating one’s true feelings verbally was frowned upon; it was not in good taste to actually shout your feelings from a mountain top. Subtle tributes and promises were made in compliance with societal rules. In response to these rules, a series of hidden meanings were attributed to everyday items, such as flowers.

For as long as history has been written down, special characteristics have been added to flowers. Superstitions, omens, and longing are just some of the few meanings added to various flowers. We all can recognize that red roses represent love, or that daisies represent innocence, but during the 19th century complex feelings and meanings were expressed by carefully curated flower arrangements.

This language of flowers is based on mythology, religion, literature, and folklore that is not bound to one set of rules. Depending on your regional understanding of their meaning, each town or country could and would interpret arrangements differently.

In 1819, Le langage des fleurs by Charlotte de la Tour was published as the first book where people gave meaning to specific flowers and plants. Several other editions followed and spread through the Victorian world. Small bouquets sometimes called “Tussie-Mussies” were given to families, friends, and loved ones conveying private messages. Whole conversations could be had simply with flowers. Meetings could be planned, or disagreements cemented.

These Victorian traditions and beliefs made their way to states and continued to grow by including many of the new native plants. Have you received a bouquet or “tussie-mussie’ of flowers recently? Here are some of the more common flowers and their meanings.

Carnations mean pride and beauty.

Magnolias represent love of nature.

Honeysuckle bodes generosity and devoted affections.

An arrangement of heliotrope, lavender, and rose could mean “I turn to thee to confess my love.”

Next time you choose an arrangement of flowers be careful, you could be saying so much more.

“Flowers are the alphabet of angels, whereby they write on the hills and fields mysterious truths.” -John Stowell Adams (Flora’s Album)

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229

In the spring of 1944, World War Two raged worldwide, and a 10-year-old boy saw a fire on Bull Mountain in Patrick County, Virginia, on March 15, 1944. This was Clarence Hall’s first recollection of this historical event that would become his mission. Like others involved in preserving history, this mission began at an early age with a pivotal event.

Earlier that day, eleven young men left on a point-to-point navigational mission from an airbase near Charleston, South Carolina, on a four-hour mission to Mount Airy, to Madison at 5,500 feet, to Florence, South Carolina, at 4,500 feet and then back to Charleston, South Carolina. The crew left Charleston at 7:52 p.m. in a B-24E Liberator airplane #42-7417 with a full load of fuel, enough for nine hours of flying.

The plane flew over Elkin, Pilot Gilbert Felts’s hometown, at 9 p.m., flashing lights to signal his family. Hall believed the plane got lost on the Mount Airy to Madison section of the mission, came down in altitude to search for the Dan River and mistakenly found the Mayo River. The plane flew over Patrick Springs and then turned west towards Bull Mountain, not realizing the height of the peak. The pilot saw the mountain and tried to pull the aircraft up, needing only 30 feet higher to clear the mountain. This was the same mountain that the Hendrick’s NASCAR team members crashed into in 2004, killing ten people.

The B-24E Liberator Bomber crashed at 10 p.m. on Bull Mountain, killing 11 young men on the night navigational mission. The co-pilot was Lt. John R. Gipson of Logansport, Indiana. The flight instructor was Lt. Aubrey E. Brown of Dallas, Texas. The bombardier was Lt. Wayne R. Alber of Manchester, Michigan. The navigator was Flight Officer Howard A. Jennett of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The assistant radio operator was Sgt. Neale M. Narramore of Elmdale, Kansas. The assistant engineer was Corporal Joseph L. Fountain of Warren, Maine. The engineer was Corporal Charlie B. Herring of Oxford. The gunner was Corporal Charles D. Libbey of Waukesha, Wisconsin. The radio operator was Corporal Carl E. Pierce of Knoxville, Tennessee. The gunner was Private First Class James J. Tiffner of Alkol, West Virginia.

Clarence Hall researched for years, which included interviewing residents and a Freedom of Information Act request of the official report of the crash. Hall authored an article on the crash for Volume One of the Patrick County Heritage Book and set up an enormous collection of materials relating to the crash displayed in the Patrick County Historical Museum. He contacted all the families except for Flight Officer Howard Jennett and Lt. Aubrey E. Brown. In 1994, Clarence and Marshall Hall placed a propeller blade from the crash, donated by Lloyd Goad, on Bull Mountain. Twenty-one veterans of Patrick County gave money to place a marker on the grounds of the Patrick County Courthouse on October 16, 1994.

In May 2004, members of the Patrick County Genealogical Society, including this author, accompanied Clarence Hall to the crash site and witnessed the impact craters from the engines still visible and places on the mountain that foliage will not grow to this day due to the fire and melted aluminum in the ground.

That day we held a moment of silence for these young men, members of a generation that saved the world from fascism. We also took a moment to thank Clarence Hall for preserving this part of Patrick County’s History as he placed a marker on the mountain and in front of the Patrick County Courthouse to honor the men who died. Clarence, a great banjo player, passed away last year after teaching auto mechanics at Patrick County High School. It you want to learn more about this historical event, check out the book Fire on Bull Mountain by Tom Perry, available in the gift shop at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a periodic column in The Mount Airy News featuring commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

Mount Airy City Schools is a unique, family-centered, school district focused on growing every child. The district has increased its market share more than 5% in the past couple of years and continues to attract families. We know that teaching children to “Lead, Innovate, and Serve” is the way to a successful future regardless of the career path students choose. Our programs and environment are built on helping students set goals and attain those goals learning lessons along the way. Mount Airy City Schools is known for innovation around the state. Innovation is solving a problem in a new and better way to produce a stronger outcome. Our schools exemplify the motto to “Lead, Innovate, and Serve.”

The state oversees accountability and growth measures for public schools and recently released Education Value-Added Assessment System growth measures for all districts. If a school grows by 1.0 then the school is considered meeting its growth measure and growing each child as predicted. If a school grows students 2.0 or greater this is equivalent to two years of growth or exceeding growth. MACS had tremendous growth last year. Students did a fantastic job when coming to school during a pandemic. All schools met or exceeded growth with many academic points showing significant growth. For example, all mathematics growth was above 2.9 and sixth-grade math reached 7.62 with Math III at 7.66. The remarkable part is that students and staff were able to exceed growth in the middle of a disrupted year.

Technology is another area in which we excel. We have technology devices for every child and in many cases two. Students utilize Chromebooks, iPads, and MacBooks while instructional staff members enjoy MacBooks and iPads. Regarding the recent rollout of iPads, one BHT mom noted, “These iPads are so great! It definitely helps to be able to read the books in Seesaw more easily compared to my phone.”

We have four inviting lunch rooms with many hot choices daily. We have more than 27 different athletic teams and offer a large catalog of academic competition teams such as Robotics, Science Olympiad, Quiz Bowl, and Future Health Professionals (HOSA). We also feature a broad arts menu including visual arts, performing arts, chorus, band, and more. Attending MACS is like attending a private school in a public school setting. We have lessons every day in areas such as language, global studies, voice, instrumental, and more that many people pay great amounts to be able to enjoy.

Don’t take our word for it listen to quotes from parents:

Regarding the most recent remote learning day, one BHT parent stated, “I truly enjoyed yesterday’s remote learning day with my son. It was adorable and fun! First grade teachers did a marvelous job engaging students!”

A citizen noting the awesomeness of our board typed, “MACS has the BEST school board anywhere. Kind individuals who are devoted to what is best for the students!”

A recent MAHS graduate claimed on social media, “MACS is the place to be!”

Our elementary schools focus on innovations by equipping their teachers with Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics strategies and Leader in Me lessons. Tharrington Primary (BHT) has an amazing staff and the number one reason families choose us. Every day students enjoy engaging lessons, special area classes, and even workforce development focused on creating innovators, problem-solvers, and students who are fluent in two languages. Our dual language immersion (DLI) program has students at BHT learning Spanish throughout the day and outperforming peers across the state.

This elementary focus continues at Jones Intermediate and builds on DLI, STEAM, and Leader in Me. Art, music, Spanish for all, and other specials also continue while clubs are introduced to students. The fabulous teachers and staff at Jones work hard and are determined to grow every child. We have a gifted program that focuses on the academic giftedness of students and is a big reason families transition to Jones.

A recent Jones service event left a parent saying, “You cannot convince me that there is a better school system or better police department!” as police officers drove through to be served hot chocolate by our elementary students for a good cause.

Anyone interested in our DLI program can learn more by visiting http://bit.ly/MACSDLI or BHT’s website and clicking Students & Families. All of our rising kindergarten dates and times are found https://bit.ly/3EW0mA4 Now is the time to be registering for kindergarten, taking tours, asking questions, and attending events to get your child excited about going to school in the fall.

Our secondary approach is just as strong with Mount Airy Middle School (MAMS) and Mount Airy High School (MAHS) being in the top of the state academically. MAMS is in the top 25% of the state and MAHS is in the top 10% of the state. It’s important that the secondary schools are performing strongly as students are getting ready to go to a two-year or four-year college or enter the workforce. The skills of communication, teamwork, problem-solving, innovation, and entrepreneurship are part of our STEAM framework. We have over 100 students involved in workforce placement internships this year throughout our dedicated business community. The academic and athletic programs are second to none and help develop well-rounded students. Ninety percent of our students go on to college and many of those go into careers in the arts, engineering, health care, and trades. We have new programs in construction, drones, and science aviation as well as traditional careers such as health sciences, programming, graphic design, and carpentry.

A parent of a child who transferred from a local charter to MACS noted, “My daughter enrolled at MAMS last year in 8th grade and had a very positive experience.”

One community member commented on MAHS Club Day post online that, “MACS continues to amaze me, how they set examples for creativity in our schools.” Regarding a CTE course in graphic design, a grandparent commented “It’s great to see how schoolwork does have real world applications!!”

Our partnership with homeschool families is one of the strongest in the state. We attract homeschoolers to partner with us each year because we know our community’s students need the best support for success as well. This year we have put a K-8 STEAM Micro-school in place. It has doubled in enrollment and is a great opportunity for families who want to be hands-on in their child’s education. The micro-school is led by some of our strongest educators and they meet online with children each day while creating weekly experiences for them to interact with each other. These students come together to cook, plant gardens, learn to swim, and experience STEAM hands-on. This is a great way to have a hybrid learning experience for children.

One homeschool family noted, “This has been the best move we could have ever made for our child and her education!”

One MACS Micro-School parent noted, “We have enjoyed being involved in our kids’ learning while still having the support of their teachers.”

Is your family interested in the MACS Micro-School? Visit https://bit.ly/MACSmicro or locate this information on our website under Students & Families. Homeschoolers can learn more about our growing partnership by visiting http://bit.ly/HSpartnership

For families wishing to better understand what MACS has to offer them and for current families wishing to see what is found at the next school, visit https://bit.ly/AboutMACS21-22 There you will find a brochure highlighting many opportunities found in our system. Anyone wishing to schedule a tour can visit http://bit.ly/MACStour.

Be a step ahead by having your enrollment forms ready to go. Visit http://bit.ly/MACSenroll to see the forms and what is needed. Contact any staff member or administrator by visiting https://bit.ly/MACSstaff

Have more questions? We have FAQs for you. Just visit http://bit.ly/MACSFAQs or our website and click Students & Families.

It’s never too late to become a Granite Bear.

“There are few places in America more beloved than the Blue Ridge, rising like an ancient Great Wall across a third of the breadth of the nation. It has the burnished beauty of a country long lived in, of doorsills worn thin, of deep cook footpaths beneath the poplars.” – Opening words to Richard C, Davids’, The Man Who Moved a Mountain.

The Blue Ridge is a wondrous place, some would say the hills and valleys are plucked right out of a book. With numerous stories and songs to sing; some of hope and joy, others of loss and pain. The story and legacy of Bob Childress might seem like a tall tale at times, but his prevailing attitude, faith, and love has made him a Blue Ridge legend and hero.

Rev. “Bob” Robert Childress was brought into this world by another mountain legend, Aunt Orlean Puckett on Jan. 19, 1890. Bob was born to Babe and Lum Childress within “The Hollow,” located just above the North Carolina border. He was born into the poorest of the poor, as a child being hungry was commonplace in the hollow, at least in his family. With multiple brothers and sisters, winters were long, while fall spoils were greedily received.

Food wasn’t the only thing scarce in the hollow. Churches were few and far between and schools were practically nonexistent. When Bob was 6, a teacher was sent from Guilford College to start a school and Sunday school in the Hollow. Bob vowed to attend every meeting and he did. He even received an attendance award — a pair of red suspenders. After eight years of school, his beloved teacher, Miss Sally Marshburn, married, leaving The Hollow and heading closer to her home in North Carolina. Bob was devastated, and rarely attended school afterward.

His young life was plagued by drinking, fighting, and debauchery. If he wasn’t picking fights with others, they were picking fights with him. He was troubled with many trials and different jobs. He worked with lumber, and as a blacksmith at one time. He was on a continuous path of drunkenness and pain until he met his first wife, Pearl, and that’s when he started to turn his life around. Bob even joined up with a posse tasked with finding the fleeing members of the Allen family after the trial in Hillsville. He moved his family to West Virginia in search of work in the coal mines and continued his journey for self-discovery.

Pearl passed quietly in 1918 after the family returned home to The Hollow, leaving Bob with two children and lost hope.

Bob had been searching all his life for a purpose, and with the loss of his wife and the security of his two children to worry about he started getting straight, even more so than after his marriage. He would take the kids to church each week and his blacksmithing business prospered. The church became his crutch to lean on, with the need to help others growing inside him.

Married again in 1919 to Lelia Montgomery, Bob started on a path that would lead to many new and exciting things for him and his family. The years to follow would find Bob finishing seminary school to become a minister, cultivating a persona of faith and good works, and the creation of seven unique and amazing churches still recognizable today.

Couldn’t make it on the rough mountain roads to church? Bob would come pick you up.

Did you need help chopping wood? All you needed to do was call the Reverend.

He made church and religion accessible to the hollow and beyond. Some of his hardest work was done on and around Buffalo Mountain. Buffalo was known for its hard men and women. Killing, lying, and shame crept over the mountain like a terrible storm, never to leave. Some would say that Bob helped calm the storm.

Bob’s legacy continues to live on in the seven churches he created and the many people whose lives he touched. It you want to learn more about the Rev. Childress check out The Man Who Moved A Mountain, written by Richard C. Davids, or take a trip to one of the churches he built.

– Indian Valley Presbyterian Church, the only Bob Childress church not to be faced with natural rocks.

Emily Morgan is the Guest Services Manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229.

“I thought that was the sweetest music that had ever been in this world, that old fiddle.”– Albert Hash

Music surrounds us in our daily lives whether on the radio, in commercials, at church, social gatherings, or around the house. The Blue Ridge Mountains have a rich and diverse history of music, and due to the isolated nature of some towns, music traditions were able to be passed down through the generations without much variance. Due to this, most famous musicians from the area often have humble musical roots. One little county has given a lot to the preservation and longevity of old-time and bluegrass music and it’s just a hop and a skip through the holler.

Covering approximately 427 miles in northwestern North Carolina is mountainous Ashe County. Through time, it has been part of Anson, Rowan, Surry, Wilkes, and the State of Franklin until it became its own county in 1799. There are three incorporated towns, 19 townships, and 18 unincorporated towns in its borders. Rich in natural resources, the county has boasted various industries over time.

Lansing was incorporated in 1928 and sits on less than half a square mile of land. Out of this town came Ola Belle Reed. Born Ola Wave Campbell in 1916, Ola Belle Reed came from a family of 13 children in Lansing. Both sides of her family were musically versed; her grandfather was a Primitive Baptist preacher who could fiddle, her father could play fiddle, banjo, guitar, and organ, and her grandmother and mother taught her the traditional ballads of the area. Ola learned to play clawhammer banjo and accompanied it with her singing.

Due to the Great Depression, the family moved to Pennsylvania and then Maryland in 1934 for employment. In Maryland, the family formed The North Carolina Ridge Runners, a band that played live radio broadcasts as well as for social gatherings and dance among the Appalachian transplants in the area.

Ola was known for playing and singing traditional songs and hymns but was also an accomplished original song writer. She wrote and recorded, “High on a Mountain,” “My Epitaph,” and “I’ve Endured.” In 1972, she played for the Smithsonian Folk Festival held in Washington D.C and recorded 75 songs for the Library of Congress. In 1986, she was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor in folk and traditional arts. In 1987, she suffered a stroke and was unable to play music anymore. She passed in 2002.

Although not born in Lansing, Albert Hash spent a bit over a decade in the city. Born in Whitetop Mountain, Virginia, in 1917, Albert learned to fiddle from Corbitt Stamper, his uncle George Finley, and was influenced by GB Grayson. His wife Ethel Spencer’s family was musically gifted as well; his father-in-law Bud Spencer was a dancer while his brother-in-law Thornton Spencer played fiddle. Their distant relatives were Ola Belle Reed and Dean Sturgill.

An extremely gifted player, Albert was better known for building and repairing instruments. He mostly built fiddles, but also made mandolins, banjos, dulcimers, and only one guitar, which is now in the possession of Wayne Henderson, who Albert mentored and was good friends with.

A firm believer in teaching and sharing knowledge and traditions, Albert formed the Whitetop Mountain Band in the 1940s and in 1982 he started the music program at Mount Rogers School, now known as the Albert Hash Memorial Band. In 1976, Albert recorded an album of fiddle tunes with Thornton, Thornton’s wife Emily, and Flurry Dowe under the band name The Whitetop Mountain Boys. Of note, the producer of the album was Kyle Creed. Albert passed in 1983, but his daughter Audrey Hash Ham carried on his work mentoring young luthiers in the craft as well as playing and teaching music.

Ashe County hosts many music events and festivals throughout the year. The Ola Belle Reed Festival is held in Lansing in August and the Ashe County Fiddlers Convention is held in Jefferson in July; both draw musicians and onlookers from around the country to participate and listen. The Old Helton School Hog Stomp is held every Thursday in Sturgills. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s a social gathering full of music, dancing, and of course a jam session. Another local favorite is the Phipps General Store Jam, located outside of Lansing and held on Fridays. The town of Todd offers multiple music events such as the Todd New River Festival, Jam Sessions at the Todd General Store, Todd Concert Series, and dances at the Todd Mercantile.

The interconnectedness of music, family, and traditions is a wonderful sight to behold, whether reading about it, listening to oral interview recordings, or listening to the music itself. This was a an extremely short overview of the subject, as books, documentaries, and films have been made about the people and music mentioned here, but I hope I did it justice.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a feature of The Mount Airy News, presenting commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

In previous publications, I have stated what a promising time the beginning of a new year is and that still reigns true. I love the fresh start the new year brings – the newness but also the perspective that comes with planning goals and using reflections from past lessons as we dream big for the year ahead. Some use this as a time to set resolutions or goals, and some use this as a time to reflect on the past before moving forward.

As I reflect, I am beyond amazed by what our school system was able to accomplish this past year. We welcomed students back to our campuses. We were able to define a new normal and worked together to provide ample opportunities for students and staff. We worked hard and are still working hard as we turn our sights to 2022.

Looking forward, one word has come to mind as I envision the upcoming year: Intentional. What does it mean to be intentional? Being intentional means crafting a clear purpose and setting goals to create the life you want. With intentionality, you appreciate more and express gratitude for the things that matter most in your life. When you are intentional, you set better goals and work hard to be the best version of yourself you can be. Intentionality is one of the most impactful ways to nurture others and discover more in ourselves as each of us learns, grows, develops, and succeeds.

This year, I plan to be intentional with my goals and commitments to our school system. I plan to continue putting students at the forefront of what we do while continuing to foster a culture of leadership for our employees. I plan to further align decisions with our mission of designing dreams, and growing leaders.

Curt Kampmeier once said, “If you’re going to grow, you have to be intentional.” With this in mind, I believe that we can intentionally cultivate the growth of our students and each other. The more intentional we are with our choices, the more we can flourish and thrive in this season of change.

Roll up, roll up! Whether you prefer to watch trapeze artists or aerobats, jugglers or magicians, or whether you are deathly afraid of clowns, there is something for everyone when the circus comes to town.

From the late 19th century onwards, circuses typically toured for months at a time, across the United States and some parts of Canada, with their own train cars and usually stopping only for a night or two in towns along the way. For much of the first half of the 20th century, a circus would stop by almost every year or so.

The circus was not just a background event when it came to town. In August 1929, when John Robinson’s circus came to Mount Airy for two shows in one day, it effectively closed down the town for the day. The Mount Airy granite quarry closed for the day, and factories gave their employees the afternoon off to see the event. John Robinson’s circus arrived in around 40 train cars, having left Greensboro the evening before. Pulling into Mount Airy at 4:30 a.m., a number of the circus’s 180 horses and a herd of elephants hauled and pushed their wagons through the streets of Mount Airy with such efficiency that the circus was at the fairgrounds and ready to be set up by 8 a.m. the same morning, ready to fill the main tent’s 8,000 seats.

The stoppage of Mount Airy’s industry would have been a sight for the Yadkin Valley News reporter who in 1892, wrote of their joy that Miles Orton’s circus bypassed Mount Airy on its tour, stating that “‘Circuses afford amusement for a day, but they demoralize business for awhile.. take a great deal of more money out of the country than such people are entitled to.”

Perhaps the most famous circus in history, dubbed “The Greatest Show on Earth,” the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus performed in Winston-Salem in October 1921. The circus had recently had a two-month stay at Madison Square Garden in New York City, performing twice a day to packed audiences. Coming along with the circus was a wide menagerie of animals, including elephants, camels, trained seals, bears, monkeys, dogs, and even pigeons.

The same company returned to Winston-Salem in October of 1927, this time with a “White Elephant” in tow. The elephant, named Pawah, was advertised as the only one of its kind to be found in more than 300 years, and the only genuine white elephant that had been brought to America. The sight of Pawah would have been astonishing to those who came along to the spectacle, who would never have seen an elephant before, let alone a very pale and rare white elephant.

An example of the precariousness of live performances occurred in April 1896, when the Sparks and Cole Circus rolled into Mount Airy. Arriving via railway, admission to the show was only 25 cents, which is less than $9 in today’s money. The highlight of the show was to be the feat of French “aeronaut” William DeBoe. DeBoe was set to fly into the sky in his airship — an aircraft similar to a hot air balloon — named Carolina, before jumping out and descending to the ground on his parachute. In an anticlimax, the parachute was not working, and the daredevil instead had to come back down upon his airship. Nevertheless it did not put a damper on the entertainment, with reports the next day calling it “the best 25 cents show ever exhibited here.”

Three to four thousand people came into town on the day to attend, a huge increase from the thousand or so people who lived in Mount Airy at the time. The success led the same company to return to Mount Airy the following April. This time, the circus featured more than 30 different acts, including various trained animals and a group of acrobats. DeBoe was also present and again performed his feat. There is no record of his attempt this time, which hopefully can be taken as good news.

From Sept. 14 to Sept. 19, 1925, the Eastern Star Circus and Bazaar came to Mount Airy, giving the people of the town the chance to prove whether they had the potential to run away with the circus. A special event held on the evening of Sept. 18 by the circus encouraged the audience to become the performers. The citizens of Mount Airy were encouraged to test their abilities and perform their own routines, in front of some 3,000 spectators. Several prizes were to be given out, with the winners being decided by the applause of the audience.

Many of the famous circuses of years gone by have now taken down their tents for the final time, due to various concerns and the changing interests of modern audiences.

Yet, we hold onto the nostalgia of these grand affairs, and they will be forever a reminder of the joy of laughter.

Katherine “Kat” Jackson is a part-time employee at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. Originally from Australia she now lives in Winston-Salem. She can be reached at the museum at 336-786-4478.

On a soft April evening in 1904, Florence Alma Prevette entered the parlor in her mother’s Wilkes County home. It was filled with family and friends as Mendelsohn’s “Wedding March” played on the piano. The flickering light of candles and gas lamps would have danced on the creamy silk crepe de chine gown as she and her sister Viola approached the nervous groom.

“The bride was beautifully attired in white crepe de chine,” wrote the correspondent for the North Wilkesboro Hustler. “She is one of Wilkes’ fairest daughters while the groom (Bradshaw Partridge) holds a responsible position with the Southern Railway. Both have a host of friends and were the recipients of many handsome and valuable presents.”

The young couple lived most of their lives in Mount Airy where, after leaving the railroad, Partridge sold New York Life insurance. They raised seven children here, one of whom donated the beautiful gown to the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History where it now holds a place of honor in the Victorian gallery.

Named for Great Britain’s Queen Victoria, the era lasted longer than Her Majesty who reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901. The Victorian Era, especially in the United States, is generally considered to extend to 1910.

American society saw a tremendous economic expansion with what is called the Second Industrial Revolution. Advances in steel and chemical production fueled other industries such as railroad, electric generation, and manufacturing machinery for everything from textiles to bicycles. Surry County benefitted from these advances as existing businesses incorporated the progress to enhance their facilities and new entrepreneurs saw untapped natural resources.

The arrival of the railway in Mount Airy and Pilot Mountain in 1888 and Elkin in 1890 made personal travel and transportation of goods significantly easier. County population exploded nearly 67% between 1880 and 1900 to 25,515 as people came looking for opportunities.

Chatham Mills in Elkin expanded and doubled production. Members of the Sparger family lead business in the northeastern section of the county in many areas including nationally recognized orchards and a booming tobacco manufacturing.

“Our people do a cash business,” said G. W. Sparger, Esq., of Mount Airy, who was in Raleigh recently. “There is very little of the credit business in Surry. Our farmers are not in debt, they buy and sell for cash and are absolutely independent. Merchants who do a business of $100,000 have little need of a bookkeeper as their business is almost wholly for cash.” That bespeaks a prosperous section.” So reported The Raleigh State Chronicle in October 1891.

Industrialists and merchants built beautiful homes at a surprising pace. Many still stand across the region such as the magnificent Queen Anne-style Alexander Martin Smith home in Elkin with its delicate gingerbreading and the James Hadley home on West Pine in Mount Airy.

Others, like the great brick homes of Jesse Franklin Moore (corner of Franklin and South Main streets) and Jesse Prather (corner of Rawley and North Main) have been lost to development as the communities continued to grow.

Congregations were able to build new church homes in that time as well, sometimes it was the first building dedicated to housing worship services as many congregations met in homes, barns, or open fields in earlier days.

The Westfield Friends Meeting House was built in 1885; The Pilot Mountain Primitive Baptist Church, 1896; Elkin’s Galloway Memorial Episcopal Church, 1897; and Mount Airy’s Main Street granite churches – Trinity Episcopal, Friends, First Baptist, Presbyterian, and Holy Angels – were built between 1896 and 1921.

There is no doubt that some faired better than others and poverty and inequity were still present across the county, but the Victorian Era was definitely one of growth and change for Surry. And it was noticed.

The Wilmington Messenger wrote in October 1891, “A great deal has been said about Mount Airy of late. Its growth, its trade, its business energy, its possibilities well merit attention. It is doubtful whether there is a place in NC to day (sic) that bids fair to have such a growth for the next two years as Mount Airy. Its trade is getting to be astonishingly great.”

But, perhaps the words reported in November 1897 by the Greensboro Telegram were even better. A businessman from Greensboro had visited Mount Airy and Surry County and shared his thoughts after a rough and sometimes hair-raising train ride but clearly enjoyable visit.

“At Mt. Airy, a feeling of wonder … a feeling of thankfulness that you are up side up …But for good food, pure air, healthy water, clever people, stirring people, working people, prosperous people, crooked streets, hilly streets and a general good time, go to Mt. Airy and take your chances for getting back.”

During the Christmas season many people become nostalgic, remembering Christmases past, especially the happy ones spent with family and friends or an unusual one. This is true especially for those of us who are in our senior years. Since our energy levels are lower, we spend more time sitting, remembering those happy times of years gone by.

Recently, during one of my nostalgic “remembering sessions” I held during the most recent Christmas season, the Christmas of 1951, 70 years ago, came to mind.

In the summer of 1949, an army reserve unit, the 426 Field Artillery Battalion, was organized with units in Mount Airy and Winston-Salem. “A” Battery and the Medical Detachment were located in Mount Airy with the rest of the units located in Winston-Salem.

When the Korean War began in June 1950, the 426 was immediately activated and ordered to report to Fort Bragg in September. There were 78 men from Mount Airy/Surry County who were activated and ordered to report to Fort Bragg. Some of those men soon were released for various reasons and returned home.

The 426 remained at Fort Bragg until the summer of 1951, when it was deployed to Dolan Barracks, Schwabisch Hall, Germany.

The men from Mount Airy/Surry County served in important positions throughout the battalion, especially “A” Battery. A vast majority were veterans of World War II; most had families with children back home in Mount Airy.

As Christmas of 1951 approached, the question arose as to how we could best celebrate the Christmas season 3,000 miles from home and families. There was a general consensus that we should do something special which would exemplify the true spirit of Christmas giving.

After a period of discussion by the men, we decided to give a Christmas party for the young children in an orphanage located near our army base. There were approximately 50 children who were residents of this orphanage. Most of the parents of those children were killed during the battles of World War II. We wanted to give this Christmas party with our own money without the involvement of the military command. Led by the senior NCO’S from Mount Airy/Surry County, we took a collection and several hundred dollars were donated.

The plan was to bring the children onto our army base, feed them a meal of traditional Christmas foods, have Santa Claus pay a visit and give each child a gift and a treat of candy and fruit. The army mess hall was decorated with a Christmas tree, Christmas lights, and other Christmas greenery and decorations such as would have been done at home. Never had an army mess hall been so elegantly decorated for Christmas.

The children were brought onto the base a few days before Christmas so that the men could have their own celebration on Christmas Day. A soldier would serve as a host for each child (my guest was a little 5 year old who did not understand English; neither did I understand German but the spirit of Christmas overcame language barriers).

The plan worked perfectly; the children were visibly excited even among a group of strange men in army uniforms and in an army mess hall. The men were equally excited with the spirit of Christmas and the opportunity to make a group of children happy. They enjoyed a touch of Christmas similar to that which would have been celebrated back home in Mount Airy. The children enjoyed a wonderful Christmas party and treasured their meal, the gifts and treats.

These men from Mount Airy/Surry County provided Christmas cheer for children 3,000 miles from home, children who, probably, would have had little to celebrate in a country destroyed by the ravages of World War II. There had been little recovery in Germany since the end of the war. Destruction was to be seen everywhere; millions of the German military and civilians were killed during the war including many of the parents of the children we served. The German economy had not recovered and a vast majority of the population were being fed by American relief efforts under the provisions of the Marshall Plan.

What was done by men from Mount Airy/Surry County for some German orphans at Christmas 1951 is typical of what American servicemen do wherever they go, whether it be Germany, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, or Japan.

The Mount Airy/Surry County men known to be in Schwabisch Hall on Christmas 1951 and who supported the Christmas program for the orphan children included the following: FSGT Zack Blackmon, PFC Frank Haynes, MSGT Thurmond Miller, SFC Joe Bill Neal, SFC Jack Leach, SGT Calvin Welborn, SFC Robert Holder, FSGT Austin Perdue, SFC Jack Robertson, SFC James Callahan, MSGT George Carroway, SFC Harold Sells , SGT Cecil Chandler, SGT Russell Inscore, SGT Aubrey Wall, SGT Dennis Chilton, SGT Charles Allred, SFC Howard Beeson, SGT Harry King, CPL Paul Welborn, SGT Kent Gibson, SGT George Worth, PFC Buford Harvey, SFC Robert Riggs, SFC Harold Moxley, SGT John Browne. (If I have missed someone, please forgive).

All of these men, except Robert Riggs and I, have since passed on to their eternal reward. No doubt this act of kindness shown to a group of orphan children is a part of their written record. Their children and grandchildren can take pride in what their fathers and grandfathers did to make Christmas a happy occasion for some orphan children 70 years ago. They followed the example set by the Master Teacher when He said “Let the little children come to me and don’t prevent them. For such is the Kingdom of Heaven. And he put his hands on their heads and blessed them” (Matthew 19:4).

I end this nostalgic trip down memory lane on a personal note: John Browne and I rode the train south to Goeppingen, Germany, home base of the 28th Infantry Division, to spend Christmas Day with my cousin, Grover Holder. Once there we met other men from Mount Airy including Bass Shelton, whose home was located on Franklin Street. Fred Murphy, who, along with his brothers, had a country music program on WPAQ Radio in the late 1940’s.

John Browne, upon returning home, was in the office supply business for many years. He served for nine years on the Mount Airy City Schools Board of Education and for 22 years as a Mount Airy City commissioner. Grover Holder became a Baptist pastor serving churches in North Carolina and Virginia for over 50 years. Fred Murphy, upon returning home, continued his country music career. I served as teacher/administrator for 36 years in the Mount Airy City Schools and Surry Community College.

Christmas 1951 could have been a lonely, depressing day but the true American spirit of helping one’s neighbor brought joy and a spirit of celebration, both to a group of orphan children and to a group of men, 3,000 miles from home. The true spirit of Christmas giving can be found and practiced wherever one finds himself on that special day.

Editor’s Note: Reader Diary is an occasional feature in The Mount Airy News, featuring recollections and stories from local residents.

“A disturbing snapshot of an angry America. evil.” That’s how the obscure news website Inter Reviewed describes us.

Famous newsman Ted Koppel’s ballyhooed visit last June to Granite City in search of Mayberry reverberates still. Of late, it’s taken a nasty turn.

The Washington Post newspaper is trying to kick up a storm with a year-end review last week of the controversial CBS TV news report “Mayberry Comes To Life,” complete with reflections now from Koppel, inspiration and longtime anchor of the old, groundbreaking Nightline late-night TV news program.

“People either loved it or hated it,” Koppel told the Post of his report on Mount Airy.

The Post did not go so far as to call us here in the hometown area evil. The newspaper merely called us “an unsettling snapshot.” So what’s so “unsettling” about us?

Let’s go back to the CBS TV program “Sunday Morning.” Its 13-minute news report that aired Sept. 19 began innocuously enough. “The good old days?” gushed program host Jane Pauley about “The Andy Griffith Show,” widely viewed as a reflection of Griffith’s hometown of Mount Airy. “When life was simpler, more neighborly, civilized,” Pauley said.

Next, Koppel strolled South Main Street with the chamber president, across from the Mayberry Courthouse and Jail and Wally’s Service Station tourist sites where the Mayberry squad-car tours are based. The two explained the economics of promoting Mount Airy tourism by drawing on the Mayberry mystique. Koppel chuckled at sounding the siren in a replica squad car.

Then Griffith show actress Betty Lynn, before she died in October, was shown signing autographs for Andy Griffith Museum visitors. At Mayberry Courthouse an adoring little boy from Ohio watches the show four hours a day, his mother gushed for Koppel. Snappy Lunch patrons from Louisiana said they came all this way for a pork chop sandwich.

So far so good. The story had the elements of what the Post called “a seeming puff piece,” newspaper lingo for a feel-good, happy story, a counter to all of the gloom and doom that so often comes from newspapers.

But at 4:35 into the report things began to swing raw. Politics, as Koppel would call it, began to suck the air out of the puff piece.

“A godless society” today stands in stark contrast to the higher moral values displayed in the 1960s Griffith show, an unnamed patron in line at Snappy Lunch told Koppel.

The TV show then took off on that theme.

Next, an African American family described segregation times. They had to take their restaurant food (restaurant unnamed) outside, they told Koppel. “Blacks knew where they belonged,” one told Koppel.

A U.S. flag with a picture of Donald Trump and the caption “Making America Great Again!” was shown waving in the wind.

The climax came on a trolley car tour. Not shown are the highlights of Mount Airy, the pleasant neighborhoods, the energized schools, the fine hospital or the industrious workers. Koppel asked riders – including a Barney Fife impersonator along with one-time Surry County commissioner Gary York – riders who were interested in seeing the town, about the 2020 election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol a year ago instead.

“I know you came here to have a good time,” Koppel told the group from the front of the rolling trolley, TV camera with red light by his side, “and not to talk politics.” Koppel then proceeded to talk politics.

The response? Unsettling? Disturbing? Angry? Evil? You may see for yourself at https://rayscountryham.com/mayberry on the internet.

Don’t have the time for that? OK, let me answer: Not one bit. The people in Mount Airy spoke frankly, calmly, politely and honestly about the politics when asked.

“We don’t even watch the news on TV anymore,” one unnamed rider ironically told Koppel. “We don’t feel like that we are being told the truth. … We’re trying to be swayed in a direction that we know is not the right direction.”

In the most touching moment in the report, another rider told Koppel: “I just hope when this airs, it won’t show Southerners as a bunch of dumb idiots. … We have a lot of love in our hearts. We love our country. We love our fellow man.”

Koppel told the Post “that truly never was the intent.”

But some are making his report into just that. Listed as the No. 1 most-read article on the Washington Post website, the story carried a Post online headline: “They believe in Mayberry but suggest Jan. 6 was staged.”

Koppel denied to the Post that his report was a “hit job” on Mount Airy. But he conceded that “some residents in Mount Airy and viewers in Southern states took issue.”

What did all of that have to do with a TV retrospective of the Griffith show? Nothing. But then the CBS report never really was about the Griffith show, Mayberry or Mount Airy. That’s what should be so unsettling and disturbing.

Stephen Harris returned home to live in State Road. For more information on Stephen, visit https://www.facebook.com/AllRoadsShouldLeadToStateRoad?ref=hl

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a periodic column in The Mount Airy News featuring commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

Mount Airy City Schools has an amazing Board of Education. The members go above and beyond to volunteer their time in support of the superintendent and school district as well as listen to the direction of the community. This team of professionals attends two board meetings a month, many school events throughout the year, and statewide training sessions. The role of the board is:

● To provide vision and direction for the school system.

● To create policies in accordance with state law to establish standards, accountability, and evaluation of essential operations of the school district.

● To prepare the budget for presentation to the county commissioners.

● To hire, support, and evaluate the Superintendent.

● To perform judicial functions by conducting hearings as appropriate.

● To advocate for the school district, staff, and especially the students in all interactions with other governmental entities and the public.

Our Board of Education does this for no extra pay and volunteers much of their time and energy. They allow the staff to oversee day-to-day operations within the district and make sure the superintendent and leadership team are supported. They are present and involved in the community and keep an ear to the heartbeat of the community. We know that they are champions for children in their role, they support families, and they have the best interest of the school district in their hearts and their actions.

Our board chairman is Tim Matthews and he is a local pharmacist. Tim has served on the board for 25 years and his three children who are all Mount Airy graduates. Tim’s wife Sandy retired from working in Mount Airy City Schools as an exceptional children’s teacher. Tim responds when asked about serving on the board, “the opportunity to serve, seeing a plan come together, and impacting future leaders” is a great way to enhance how Mount Airy City Schools continues to grow and lead. He loves that Mount Airy City Schools is “willing to innovate, take a risk, and always puts the interests of students ahead of other concerns.”

Ben Cooke is the vice chairman and is a local business owner. He is married to Lone and graduated from Mount Airy City Schools. Ben states that “making a difference in the lives of our students, however small it may be” motivates him to be a board member. He also says that he loves the “small community and family atmosphere” of our district as well as “knowing that our teachers love being in our school system.” Ben is always involved in activities throughout the district and his three children all attended and are attending Mount Airy City Schools.

Wendy Carriker, Jayme Brant, Thomas Horton, Randy Moore, and Kyle Leonard are members of the board of education. Together they serve and lead from their seat on the board by supporting the future of the Mount Airy City Schools district. The team of staff and board working together to make decisions is for the benefit of families in the Mount Airy Community. Wendy Carriker served as the board chair for 14 years. She is married to Chip Carriker and has two daughters who graduated from Mount Airy City Schools. She is an entrepreneur with her own business and she is often seen involved in our Blue Bear Cafe and Blue Bear Bus programs. She helps students understand how to begin their own business and have success serving others. “The fact that we are a small school system and that we are a family. I love that our staff and students truly care about each other and want the best for each other,” states Wendy.

A Mount Airy graduate and a district sales manager, Jayme Brant serves on the board. She is married to Tim, they have two daughters and their oldest daughter was recently named MVP of the State 1A Dual Team Finals in Tennis. “Belief that teaching is the hardest profession there is, but one of the most important” motivates her to be a board member as she understands “we have to continue to support teachers.” Thomas Horton is married to Kristi Horton, one of Mount Airy City Schools nurses, and has four children who have attended and are currently attending Mount Airy City Schools. He is an enterprise engineer and wants to serve the community in his capacity on the school board. Thomas says his love for public service was instilled in him, “because my parents set an early example in life.”

When asked what motivates him to be a board member, Randy Moore states, “to continue my service for our children and community, making a difference.” He is married to Rita and has four children and five grandchildren. He retired from the army and was appointed to the board in 2020. You may see him around town at events with his military style vehicles. Kyle Leonard was appointed to the board in 2018 and is married to Mary Alice. They have three children who attend or will be attending Mount Airy City Schools. Kyle is a wealth advisor and serves in the local community. Kyle said, “One thing I love about Mount Airy City Schools is the close knit family culture we have. Being a small school district, we are able to innovate and provide a great educational experience for all our students.”

Collectively, our board helps set the direction of the district through their strategic plan. Over the years many initiatives have been led by the board working closely with the staff such as the building of the Community Central Office which has become a hub of community outreach in recent years. They have helped begin the first dual language program that has attracted many families and is a great workforce development effort with our graduates being fluent in two languages.

They support administrators, teachers, and staff by building in step increases in salary, bonuses, along with a family and staff-friendly calendar. The amazing arts programs, Career Technical Education, and grant-funded innovative programs are a hallmark of Mount Airy City Schools and the board has provided the conditions and support for these to flourish. Families in the Mount Airy Community are in good hands with these board members. Many families have been attracted and retained due to the amazing programs and staff here in the district. Leadership from a strong board focused on children shows up in our community with one of the best districts in the state.

The Mount Airy City Schools Board of Education members are champions for children. They have led during the most difficult era of modern day education and should be commended for bringing students back safely and continuing to support their growth and development. If you see these folks around town be sure and thank them for their service. If you would like to be part of this community of excellence and leadership visit http://www.mtairy.k12.nc.us . There is additional information about the board under the Board of Education tab on our website.

Road signs surround us in our daily lives as we drive hither and yon, giving valuable information as we pass by. However, a specific set of signs often go overlooked by motorists — historical markers.

A while back, I wrote an article about Hardin Taliaferro and mentioned the marker dedicated in his memory on Highway 89. It is one of eight in Surry County, the others are: Jesse Franklin, Eng and Chang Bunker, Pilot Mountain, Tabitha A. Holton, Surry Muster Field, and two for Stoneman’s Raid.

The North Carolina General Assembly created the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program in 1935. The operation of the program is a cooperative effort among state agencies and the advisory committee which is comprised of ten college or university faculty members who are experts in aspects of state history. The goal of the markers is to instill an interest in the state’s history. There are more than 1,600 markers throughout the state today.

Surry countians have fought in every war America has been involved in, and the American Revolution is no exception. In Elkin on NC 268 east of Big Elkin Creek is a marker that reads: “Surry Muster Field Patriot militia, led by Major Joseph Winston, gathered in this vicinity, Sept. 1780, marched to victory at Kings Mtn.” The trail they marched is commemorated as the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail. It was created in 1980 by the National Park Service as a 330-mile trail that stretches across Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina and commemorates the path taken by Patriots to the decisive battle at Kings Mountain. The Overmountain Victory Trail Association is a nonprofit that was created to support the Historic Trail in order “to preserve, protect, and interpret the route to the Battle of Kings Mountain.”

Located on Highway 89 in the Lowgap community, is the marker for Jesse Franklin. During his political career he sought to do the best for his county and state, and for this he was highly respected. There are vague descriptions of his appearance, and he never allowed a portrait to be painted of himself. For his service during the American Revolution, he was buried at Guilford Courthouse. The marker reads: “Jesse Franklin Governor 1820-21; state & U.S. Senator and representative; officer in Revolution. His home stood 1/4 mile south.”

Pilot Mountain has been guiding people to their destinations for centuries. It was privately owned from 1857-1968 as a tourist destination and in 1976 it became a National Natural Landmark. The marker reads: “Pilot Mountain Landmark for Indians and pioneer settlers. Elevation 2,420 feet. State Park since 1968. Stands 3 miles west.”

At the intersection of Main Street and Kapp Street in Dobson stands the only marker in the county dedicated to a woman. Tabitha A. Holton was born near Jamestown, North Carolina. She was sworn in as an attorney in Greensboro but moved with her brother to Dobson to practice in Surry County in 1880. In 2019, her 1878 law license was given to the North Carolina Supreme Court to be displayed in the History Room there. The marker reads: “Tabitha A. Holton 1854-1886 First woman licensed to practice law in North Carolina, 1878. Lived thirty yards northwest.”

In the White Plains community was the homeplace of the world-famous conjoined twins, Chang and Eng. They met and married local women, the Yates sisters, and had 21 children between them. Each brother had his own house and they would split their time between both homes. They attended and are buried at White Plains Baptist Church on old US 601. The marker reads: “Eng and Chang Bunker 1811-1874. Conjoined twins born in Siam. Toured widely in the U.S. before settling nearby to farm, 1839. Grave is 100 yards W.”

While no major battles of the Civil War were fought in Surry County, it did not mean the county was unaffected. During the latter part of the war, from March until mid-April, General Stoneman led a force of Union troops from Tennessee to western North Carolina on what is known as Stoneman’s Raid. Its purpose was to deal a blow to Confederate morale and expedite the end of the war.

Surry County didn’t experience major damages or devastation, with the most common items being taken were food, clothing, and horses. Sometimes, news of the approaching cavalry would reach local residents, who would in turn hide their valuables and livestock. Hostilities were high between locals and the troops, giving rise to many stories that have been passed down through time.

There are two markers to Stoneman’s Raid in the county, one in Mount Airy on Rockford Street near the public library and one in Dobson at the old Courthouse. The Mount Airy marker reads: “Stoneman’s Raid On a raid through western North Carolina Gen. Stoneman’s U.S. cavalry passed through Mount Airy, April 2-3, 1865.” The Dobson marker reads: “Stoneman’s Raid On a raid through western North Carolina Gen. Stoneman’s U.S. cavalry passed through Dobson, April 2, 1865.”

These markers serve as a quick snapshot of the local people and events that influenced state and national history. So, go out for a drive and find these markers and connect with the county’s history. Keep in mind, additional markers can be applied for and dedicated in the future!

Justyn Kissam is the director of learning at Kaleideum in Winston-Salem.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a feature of The Mount Airy News, presenting commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

There is no doubt that we are all very fortunate to call Surry County our home. I count myself doubly blessed to have the opportunity to raise my two children here and live alongside a team of highly skilled educators and professionals. Aside from its beautiful landscape and location, I think that one of the best things about Surry County is the abundance of ways that people in our community give back. Whether it be through volunteering time or money, the residents of Surry County always pull together to provide extra to those in need.

Specifically, volunteers in our school system have been able to make an impact in the lives of students in Surry County during the pandemic. This past year, volunteer opportunities were limited because of COVID-19 protocols that caused the district to limit those coming in and out of our schools daily.

This school year, volunteers have been welcomed back into schools in a limited capacity to assist with many new, exciting opportunities, one being our USDA Fresh Foods and Vegetable Grant. Because of the combined work of our dedicated school nutrition staff and these volunteers, students at ten elementary schools have been able to receive healthy snack options during the school day. The Rotary Club of Mount Airy has also partnered with our school system to provide volunteers to read to students at Flat Rock Elementary. These one-on-one reading sessions help students read aloud and further promote the joy of reading at a young age.

Volunteers have also been critical in the fundraising efforts of the Give A Kid a Christmas Foundation. I am grateful to those who give so freely to our students and dedicate a portion of their time to shopping and packing boxes of food for those in need. This group has made Christmas special for our students for the past 30 years with their tireless work and dedication.

This month, we celebrate International Volunteer Day. During this day, we not only celebrate volunteerism in all its facets – but we also pay special tribute to the hard work of volunteers in making a difference locally, nationally, and globally. Whether an individual helps in the classroom, in the cafeteria, or in the community, their work doesn’t go unnoticed. Each and every one of these gifted volunteers has the ability to shape the lives of students. They may not understand the difference they make by offering their time and talents, but this crucial work deserves to be celebrated. As the season of giving continues, be sure to thank a volunteer in your life.

“To forget one’s ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without roots.” – Chinese Proverb

Here in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and atop its lofty hills we, as the mountains caretakers, value history. Each generation is steeped in the tradition, tragedy, hard work, and love that was taken to create a life within its shadows. Each holler, hill, stream, and rock formation echo with the lives lived before us by our ancestors and theirs. Remembering this history is of the utmost importance. The Rock Castle Community is one of those important places.

Somewhere between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Bull Mountain lies the remnants of a once thriving community.

The Rock Castle creek, Bear/Bare rocks, and abundance of virgin forests thrived for many years prior to being given the name Rock Castle. This area which was fed by the Smith River served as a hunting and foraging ground to Native American groups, such as the Tutelo tribes and potentially the Sauras from our very own Surry County.

Artifacts are found occasionally that mark the area with Native American activity. Some say the large and unique clear quartz rocks that were found along the creek were viewed as sacred to many Native tribes, being preserved for ritual needs.

It would be these very rocks that gave the community its name. The crystals looked like the castles of the old country, giving fond memories to incoming settlers. Many settlers traveled to the Blue Ridge via the Great Wagon Road; others came from eastern ports.

The creek and once fertile lands had much to offer to weary and wondering travelers. The spring offered fresh drinking and cooking water, the hardwoods yielded to become cabins and barns. The American Chestnut trees offered sturdy wood as well, but more importantly the much-coveted chestnuts.

Michael Ryan wrote in his book, Life in Rock Castle, Virginia, that chestnuts around the 1800s comprised about 40% of the forest in Rock Castle. Once ripe, the fallen chestnuts would cover the forest floor. Children would wake up early to gather up the nuts to eat and barter with. The forest’s wild razorback hogs would gorge themselves on the chestnuts in the fall, soon to be gathered and shorted to sustain the community. Each house would mark hogs by making a specific slit in their ear.

The community and its more than 35 families grew, built, foraged, or traded to get what they needed to sustain life. These self-sufficient people worked hard from dawn till dusk carving out a life from the mountain. Many families planted apple orchards along the steep cliffs, using sleds with chains to drag the fresh produce to the top. The DeHart family founded the DeHart Distillery in Patrick County, Virginia, in 1889. This allowed for the abundance of apples to be turned into brandy. It was also common for families in Rock Castle to have their own corn whiskey stills.

The small section of the Blue Ridge once boasted more than five mills, several general stores and eventually one home with electric lighting powered by an overshot waterwheel and generator. Children helped trap live game, fish, and gather chestnuts. The six-month school year, planned around the farm season, took place in a one room schoolhouse, established in 1880, with no support from the county or state. With the advent of radio, automobiles and more, Rock Castle would continue to thrive for a short period of time.

The disintegration of the community had many factors. The 1916 Virginia Prohibition Bill and the later nationwide prohibition halted “public” selling of brandy and whiskey. A short time after the “Endothis parasitica,” or Chestnut Blight claimed the area’s biggest resource, decimating the American Chestnut to extinction. When the Great Depression hit, the small rural community of Rock Castle was already critically injured. Young folk began leaving their farms in search of work, looking for renewed hope in other communities.

In 1933, President Roosevelt promised to change everything with The New Deal. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) had many sites in Virginia, one of those was located inside Rock Castle. That same year a park-to-park road highway was approved, and the Blue Ridge Parkway began. Land within Rock Castle was purchased, with some happy neighbors and some not so much.

Today many descendants from Rock Castle are happy to see their ancestral homeland preserved and protected. The old pathway is now an accessible hike that follows much of the old roadbed were you might see chimneys, foundations, and an old moonshine car, if you know where to look.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229

Mount Airy has been known for many things — a big, gleaming rock, beautiful yet simple well-made furniture, quality bright leaf tobacco, the Happiest Girl In The Whole USA, and, of course, a folksy sheriff that didn’t carry a gun.

And, for most of a century, it has been known for its socks.

Whether it was for your toddler, a bobby-soxer, hiker, farmer, or M-16 rifle, Mount Airy has been turning out socks for 100 years.

The most unusual sock on that list, of course, is the M-16 rifle sock. Robert Merritt, grandson of the founder of Renfro Hosiery Mill and president of the company in 1991, he designed the rifle covers in response to requests from troops in the first Gulf War for nylons.

What they needed was a way to keep the ubiquitous sand out of their rifles and Merritt thought he could do better than a pair of pantyhose. Renfro produced the socks and competitor Kentucky Derby Hosiery dyed, finished, packaged, and shipped them.

Most of the socks produced in Mount Airy have been more traditional styles.

Renfro Corp. makes one out of every five socks sold in America. Merritt’s grandfather, William Edward Merritt Jr. founded the company on Willow Street in 1921. The company has been headquartered here ever since. It has recently been purchased by a New York firm.

Their sprawling plants employed hundreds locally producing socks for Fruit of the Loom, Carhartt, Dr. Scholls Merrell, Hot Sox and K.Bell.

That first plant was joined by as many as 13 other companies at one time, with the local business owners joined by companies drawn to the lower costs and large pool of skilled workers in this area.

But no matter where you start, the story of sock manufacturing in Mount Airy seems to lead back to Tollie Barber but it’s not exactly clear why.

Surry County has never been a metropolitan area but there has been a strong network of business-minded people who’ve created a series of industries that may seem unlikely for a county that sits so far from larger cities. Chatham Mills in Elkin, Spencer’s Infantware, Mount Airy Furniture Company and others have been nationally and, sometimes, internationally known brands.

Barber, with a degree in textile manufacturing, joined W.E. Merritt Jr. and his brother Oscar, W.G. Sydnor and W.W. Burke, all men active in the business and civic life of the county, to establish Renfro Hosiery Mill on Willow Street in part of the old Sparger Tobacco complex. They began with $200,000 in capital, just north of $3 million in today’s money.

By 1933 Barber and others at Renfro had begun two other sock mills, Argonne and Piedmont, each specializing in different products from children’s socks to misses’ anklets, to men’s boot socks. The effects of the Great Depression took their toll, though and Renfro absorbed those mills in order to keep the company financially viable.

In 1937 the company had $1 million in sales. The next year they lost $22,000 according to reporting in the Charlotte Observer at the time. It was the last year the company showed a loss until the 1979 flood that destroyed more than $2 million in stock according to the Wall Street Journal.

Despite the economic challenges, growth of hosiery production in Mount Airy didn’t stop and neither did Barber. In 1938 he built Barber Hosiery Mill atop the hill near the intersection of Hamburg and South Main streets.

The Mount Airy News reported it was “the eighth textile and knitting plant to be started in the city.” With 100 machines it employed 300 workers.

Lynne and Surry hosiery mills were built in 1941. Barber was, again, involved in operations with Surry, recruited as an advisor to the Surry mill. Though construction slowed during World War II, Barber was involved with local politics, banking, and the formation of the Mount Airy Base Ball Association.

Once the war ended and all those GIs headed home the Baby Boom that followed fueled an economic boom. Members of the powerful Carter family and JW Prather, all successful in business, bought the Blizzard Freight Terminal on South Street and built Carter Hosiery Mills in 1946.

The Moss-Foy Textile Company set up on Newsome Street that same year to do skein dyeing and winding for the hosiery mills. Construction and expansion took off with Renfro adding 50,000 square feet to its Willow Street plant and Granit Hosiery Mill consolidating their several locations under one roof by moving into the larger Renfro #2 plant at the corner of South Main and Worth streets.

Amos and Smith Hosiery in Pilot Mountain, Oakdale, Brown Wooten Mills, Adams-Millis, Blue-Chip, Kentucky Derby, and Nester were added.

As the global market opened, companies moved production, packaging, and shipping to off-shore facilities beginning in the 1990s. Little production remains in the county aside from Nester but the history and all that was accomplished is a point of pride for many in the region.

And if you happen to have one of those M-16 rifle socks in a drawer someplace, the museum would give it place of pride.

Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a local freelance writer, researcher, and genealogist.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a periodic column in The Mount Airy News featuring commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

The Mount Airy City Schools (MACS) school district has been successful over the years and continues to be a leader in education. Last year, we were the only school district to return to school five days a week beginning in August and this year we continue to lead the way with our first semester connecting 52 Career and Technical Education interns, 38 NextGen paid interns (20 hours a week), and new pathways that lead to promising careers.

We have a new construction program, a drone program, technology classes, engineering classes, health science classes, entrepreneurship classes, and many other avenues for students to find their gifts, talents, and abilities. We have used the lessons from our elementary program Leader in Me over the years to lead like champions.

Leader in Me has been in place for over a decade in our elementary programs and is based on Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The habits create successful leaders and we use them every day with children and in our own decision-making. We teach our children – Habit 1: Be Proactive. This teaches one to take responsibility for one’s own reaction to one’s own experiences. We know when the pandemic hit that we needed to react quickly, turn around technology, get it to students within days so learning could continue uninterrupted and prepare meals and hotspots for delivery out to homes. This habit encourages children to respond positively and improve the situation. Our response was a good lesson for them to follow.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind is important for children. This life habit encourages students to envision what you would like to become so you can work toward that goal. Many of our students want to go into the health field, technology field, education, accounting/banking, and many other careers. They can begin using Xello in middle school to map out the classes and pathways that best align to their natural abilities and interests. Counselors and teachers give them advice to help what they envision to become a reality.

MACS needed to begin with the end in mind this year by prioritizing keeping every child in school. We have been able to participate in Test-to-Stay this year that prevents any COVID exposure in schools from automatically sending children home. If we were in a masked environment we could keep kids in school by rapid testing them instead of quarantining them if they were asymptomatic. The goal of keeping students in school helped us make great decisions resulting in very few students on remote learning.

Students might need help in prioritizing their tasks. They need to think about whether a task is urgent and important such as getting up and getting ready in order to get on the bus on time. Or they may be thinking through whether the homework assignment due tomorrow or the larger project due on Friday is most important and how to manage their time to get both done.

This is outlined in the advice around Habit 3: Put First Things. Our school district sees that urgent and important are the strategies we use to keep all students safe. We also know that making sure all children have social-emotional support, get fed each day, have their physical needs cared for, and people who will mentor them must occur before children will be able to learn. Our school works hard to make sure all of these needs are met and families get the support they need to raise children.

The next three habits from Leader in Me outline an interdependence on others. One of the biggest lessons we can teach students is how to love their neighbor, negotiate a better solution, listen to people who have a different opinion, and take care of each other.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win is a mature way of having conversations, solving problems, and building a brighter future. We know that there is always a negotiation in schools between parents, politicians, and people within the school system. We are really thankful that the General Assembly and the Governor have used this habit with the current budget. The budget begins to value teachers, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians, administrators, and all staff with increased pay as well as bonuses for some of the groups. This habit of win-win allows everyone to be able to come to agreement and move forward even if everyone doesn’t get everything they asked for in the process.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood is a great habit that we all need to adopt. If we are careful to really try to understand what others are trying to say this will help us to be able to help them. We can all move forward together. We are thankful that our community has suspended some of the disruptive behaviors we have seen in other communities concerning schools. We have worked together to keep students safe, come back to school together, hold athletics and activities, and decide on next steps to return to normal. Seeking first to understand and be collaborative is a great lesson for our children to see through us and our behaviors.

Habit 6: Synergize is illustrated every day in MACS. Our children are put in teams to accomplish goals. Our elementary teachers put students in teams to accomplish goals through project-based learning and inquiry-based activities. Our middle school and high school have athletic teams, academic competition teams, and clubs. MACS uses staff teams to show leadership every day through school-based teams, leadership teams, and administrative teams.

The last habit may be the most important right now. Sharpen your saw by taking care of yourself, creating healthy life habits, and sustaining joy and fruitful lives. This is important for our children and ourselves. We hope that everyone uses Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw during this holiday season to take some time for ourselves by doing things that you enjoy doing.Thanks for all the support for educators that you continue to give as we teach and practice the habits in Leader in Me. If you would like to be a part of our tradition of excellence and help build future leaders visit us at https://www.mtairy.k12.nc.us.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a feature of The Mount Airy News, presenting commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

There is no doubt in my mind that the past few holiday seasons have been hard. Regardless, I believe there is only one thing we can do when confronted with difficult times; Push forward. If we continue to push forward, we can focus on the positives and pay our good energy forward.

The Give a Kid a Christmas Foundation shares the same goal of pushing forward against the challenges of life. For almost 30 years, the Surry County Sheriff’s Office and Surry County Schools have worked together to provide food, clothes, and Christmas gifts to those who otherwise would go without every year. Beginning in the 1990s, the organization set out with the hope of feeding 50 families, which seemed arduous to organizers at the time. In 2020, the foundation provided clothes and toys for 700 children and supplied more than 250 food boxes to families. Each year, the foundation continues to give more to the children of Surry County.

The goal is to make sure that children in need have an adequate supply of food to get them through the school Christmas break, to ensure that each child has appropriate clothing to get them through the winter, and some toy or other item that they would like to have for Christmas. The Surry County Sheriff’s Office and Surry County Schools believe that every boy and girl deserves to experience the joy and exhilaration of a happy Christmas morning with a full belly and warm clothes.

Can you imagine waking up every day and knowing you would be going to school wearing the same clothes as the day before? What if you woke up on Christmas morning and saw that Santa had forgotten you? What if you spent each day of Christmas vacation checking the cupboards with a growling stomach, seeing that there is still no food?

For many children in Surry County, this dire image is their reality. But with your help, we can change that! Together we can make a real difference in the lives of these children! We can make sure they have food, get them clothes, and we can even make their Christmas morning one of joy. Together, we can continue to work to make sure every child has a Merry Christmas!

With Christmas nearly upon us, I’m asking the community to help with monetary donations and help shop and assemble food boxes.

To get involved, donate or mail a check to the Sheriff Atkinson’s Give a Kid a Christmas Foundation at PO Box 827, Dobson, NC 27017 or donate online at http://paypal.me/giveakidachristmas. Donations can also be made through Venmo at sheriffsgiveakidachristmas@gmail.com

Volunteers will convene on Thursday, Dec. 9, at 9 p.m. If you would like to come to help us shop at the Elkin Wal-Mart. On Saturday, Dec. 11, at 8 a.m., volunteers will also assemble at Surry Central High School if you would like to help prepare the food boxes.

The early 20th century was a tumultuous time for the nation; wars, social and political reforms, physical and technological growth, and the Great Depression. A major concern was the well-being and growth of rural communities, especially farmers and their families. Many programs and reforms were started to benefit these communities.

One such program with a long, rich history is the Home Demonstration Club or Extension Homemaker Association.

In 1906, before any other in the South, the NC Department of Agriculture created a separate Farmers’ Institute for women and hired female lecturers. In late summer, the lecturers would head out into rural communities to instruct farm women on matters such as canning, cooking, sanitation, marketing, new work technology, and how to do work more effectively.

The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 created the agricultural extension service and gave money for farm and home demonstration agents, if matching financial support was provided in the states. It was a joint effort of the US Department of Agriculture and land-grant colleges and one of its most influential organizations was the Home Demonstration Club or Extension Homemaker Association.

Farm wives especially balanced a variety of responsibilities: mother, friend, farmer, wife, and daughter. Women were expected to take care of the family, complete household work, and contribute to farm labor. With the information provided by home demonstration agents to rural women, the opportunity for personal and financial growth for women grew. Farm women relied on the skills and talents they had accrued over the years to sell surplus food products and handicrafts. Through their own work, women could make money for themselves, establish independence, and create a separate identity for themselves from the farm.

The Surry County Extension Homemakers had eight charter clubs in 1935 and in 1988 there were 24 clubs and 414 members. It began as a volunteer organization to improve quality of life for family, home, and community. The programs were open to all adults and were focused on the needs, desires, and interests of people of varying economic, social, and cultural backgrounds.

These clubs were Beulah, Busy Bees, Copeland, Dobson Early Birds, Flat Rock, Franklin, Good Neighbor, Helpful Hands, Holly Springs, Lazy Daisies, Long Hill, Lowgap, Mountain Park, North Elkin, Pilot Mountain, Poplar Springs, Rockford, Rockford Villagers, Salem Fork, Shoals, Siloam, Union Cross, White Plains, and White Sulphur Springs.

Although the heyday was the early to mid-20th century, home extension clubs still exist. Today there are five active ECA (Extension and Community Association) clubs reporting to the NC Cooperative Extension and 60 members in Surry County. The clubs today are Beulah, Good Neighbor, Happy Tracks Club, Pilot Mountain Achievers, and Siloam Club.

On a side note, on the Historic Downtown Mount Airy Ghost Tour, there’s a particular story about a young couple in the early 1950s. He was an agricultural teacher while she was home demonstration agent. You’ll have to take a tour to find out the rest of the story!

Justyn Kissam is the director of learning at Kaleideum in Winston-Salem.

As the chill of winter creeps in, we huddle in the warmth of our homes, and turn on the lights to drive away the dark that comes earlier and earlier each day. It is easy to forget the luxury that this really is, and that for the majority of human history, up to just about 100 years ago, the onset of winter brought with it cold and darkness that we couldn’t just dispel with the flick of a switch.

The electric age shimmered into existence in the late 19th century, with famed inventor Thomas Edison’s creation of the incandescent electric light bulb in 1879. This creation would go on to illuminate the country, and the world, becoming one of the first uses of electricity in everyday homes of the time.

The adaptation of the region to electric light was rapid. Salem, before being incorporated as part of Winston-Salem, was the first town in North Carolina, and perhaps even in the whole of the South, to have the newfangled electric lights in its manufacturing plants, with Winston opening a generating plant to provide both street and residential lighting in 1887.

Closer to home, a Mount Airy News article from 1893 titled “Light the Street” voiced the early calls for the electrification of the town’s streets. The article laments that people are “heartily ashamed” of the lack of lights in the streets and that “it is a shame to allow the people to grope their way in darkness any longer.” As with most communities, before electric lights were installed in the streets, the area was reliant on gas or oil lamps, which were often unreliable and needed to be lit individually by hand. The introduction of electric street lights, that could be automated and provided a brighter level of light, proved popular.

Helping to supply the city with power and lights was the Buck Shoals power plant, located on the Ararat River. Originally built by a local merchant as a dam and cloth mill, the power plant was completed in 1904 by the city of Mount Airy. By 1918, plans were already being made to build an additional power plant, as demand for electricity was far beyond the production that the current plant could muster.

Though the technical restraints of the power grid meant there was a delay in electric spreading to areas outside cities, there was nonetheless a drive to have it available to all residents, both urban and rural. The Rural Electrification Administration, or REA, was established in 1935 by President Roosevelt, with the aim of bringing electricity to rural communities through providing low interest loans.

When the REA was established in 1935, only 3% of all farms in North Carolina were electrified, however by 1946, this rose to an estimated 44%, with a third of these farms being supplied by power lines financed by REA loans.

The Surry County section of the REA was initiated by county agent Bob Smithwick, when he called a meeting in the Surry County Courthouse in Dobson in 1940, to discuss the electrification of rural areas of the county. This group went on to become the Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation. The next year, the corporation had its Mount Airy substation built and flicked the switch to turn on the lights for around 650 households. The following year, this increased to 764 customers, many of which were farmers who used the power for their farm equipment, and the group operated 257 miles of power lines.

As we approach Christmas and begin decorating our trees, they will look much different than in the past, when instead of electric powered string lights, Christmas trees were lit with candles, seemingly much more romantic albeit even more of a fire hazard. For this, we can thank those who campaigned and innovated their way into the electric age.

Katherine “Kat” Jackson works at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. Originally from Australia she now lives in Winston-Salem. She can be reached at the museum at 336-786-4478 or kljackson@northcarolinamuseum.org

On Nov. 11, 1620, the Mayflower anchored in Plymouth Bay. Those aboard had endured a horrific 66-day journey and they weren’t done. The 102 passengers and their crew lived onboard the ship for 130 more days, weathering a severe winter as their food supplies dwindled and disease and starvation ravaged them.

The group originally set out in July with another ship, the Speedwell, but both ships were old and taking on water. After several false starts and a series of major repairs, the Mayflower set out on her own Sept. 16 headed for the Hudson Bay — 250 miles south of where they finally set anchor.

By the end of that winter only 53 people remained. When the weather permitted, they gathered supplies on land and began building huts on the hills overlooking the bay. They finally left the ship at the end of March 1621.

The Wampanoag tribe watched and debated what to do about these newcomers. The Native experience with Europeans was a mixed bag at best filled with betrayals, broken treaties, and outright treachery over the 100 years before.

The tribal leader, Massasoit, weighed the risks — help the struggling band that had already stolen food from them or attack to drive them away. He decided it would be better to build an alliance with them on his terms. It was, after all, a small group.

I don’t think any of the Native tribes could have imagined the sheer number of Europeans who would travel to North American in the coming years. The Mayflower was followed by hundreds of tall-masted ships carrying people looking for land and freedom, economic opportunity, and escape from the horrors of war and famine. The Swan. The Godspeed. The Hercules. The Blessing. The list goes on.

In 1635, the Abigail put in to Boston. Among her 220 passengers was the Freeman family from Devonshire England. John would eventually marry Mercy Pence, granddaughter of Elder William Brewster. Their son moved to Norfolk, Virginia and, later, his son brought his family to Chowan County, North Carolina.

Peter Folger arrived in Watertown, Massachusetts the same year as Freeman. His daughter Abiah married Josiah Franklin. They became the parents of Ben Franklin.

Over time sons of this line married daughters descended from two other survivors of the Mayflower. The Quaker family joined the migration of that sect to New Garden (now Greensboro) in 1777. Several members became physicians, including Walter C. Folger, born in 1868, who set up practice in Dobson.

In 1892 he married Sally Victoria Freeman, the 4x great-granddaughter of John and Mercy Freeman, bringing no less than three lines of Mayflower descendants together in Surry County.

We often think of the monumental events of history in distant terms. Things that happened far away to people with no connection to us but, we are much closer to history than we know. Those Mayflower families entwine through the Freemans and Folgers, Reeves and Marions, Pooles, Riddles, Llewellyns, Mosers, Bowles, Bolichs and many others. They have produced people who built strong communities and keept them safe, patriots who cast off the tyranny of a distant monarch, doctors, musicians, teachers, interior designers, farmers, and so many more.

There are great debates in society these days trying to put the morality of our ancestors’ actions into better context. There is no doubt that great injustices happened in the formation of this nation that I love but I will leave that discussion for others more knowledgeable than I to work out.

What I do know is that 400 years ago this month a small group of people sat down to a meal to celebrate their survival. That 242 years later President Lincoln declared a National Day of Thanksgiving to celebrate the survival of the Union. And this month many of us will sit down to celebrate our families and friends as we come out of these recent unpleasant times.

If we have erred as a nation in the past, perhaps we can gather through this holiday season in love and decide to do better as individuals in the future.

Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a local freelance writer, researcher, and genealogist.

As leaves of amber, chocolate, and sunshine brush by windshields of cars driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, just north of Surry COunty, a familiar friend springs into view. At milepost 176 on the parkway the ever-majestic Mabry Mill stands as a constant reminder of the past and future.

The site today has changed from the once bustling community center to the most photographed site on the Parkway. Back then, people from the surrounding community, or “country” as it was called, visited the Mabry’s homestead for mill, blacksmith, and sawmill services. Today, visitors can learn about mill operations, basket weaving, and everyday life in the mountains.

While at the time, many local folks were unsettled about the Parkway passing through town, it is without a doubt the reason the Mill stands today.

Edwin Boston Mabry married Mintoria Elizabeth DeHart on March 1, 1891, both at the age of 24. The couple, who were fondly referred to as “Uncle Ed” and “Aunt Lizzie,” started their lives farming in Virginia, but soon found that Ed’s passion was not in farming but in inventing. It is here that the couple decided to save up money to open and operate a sawmill.

After spending some time in West Virginia learning to blacksmith, the Mabry’s moved home and embarked on their dream. From 1905-1914, five different parcels of land were purchased. The first building to go up was the blacksmith shop, and by 1910 the water-powered mill was up with an extensive flume system underway.

Ed used local resources when setting up shop. One Mount Airy iron works supplied the cast iron gears for the mill; Millstones came from the Brushy Mountain Quarry. The sawmill and carpentry shop were the last enterprises to be added. Sometime after the 1920s, the Mabry’s built a two-story, white farmhouse. This home had room for guests to visit even though the Mabry’s mainly used the bottom floor.

Until the 1930s, families from the surrounding towns and counties came to Ed and Lizzie for their needs. The shops could cut timber, create tools, grind corn to make meal or chop and more. All of these tasks were completed by either Ed or Lizzie. When Ed’s health began to wane, Lizzie began to take on her tasks, as well as Ed’s. Not long after the mill was closed and fell into disrepair, Ed passed at 69 years old. Lizzie remained in the home for a few more years, eventually moving to live with her sister. By this time the Blue Ridge Parkway Landscape Architects were eyeing the area as a major stop along the new roads path.

The “Scenic,” as it was originally called, was the first Parkway of its kind. With 469 miles between two states, it was set to showcase the best and beautiful of Rural Appalachia. To make way for the many sites along its path buildings were moved, repaired, and destroyed, and the Mill site was no different. The Mabry’s two-story home was removed, despite disapproval from the then Parkway historian. It was replaced with the Mathew’s Cabin from Galax, Virginia.

During the tourist season, visitors flock to the buzzing restaurant and interpretive site. Whether it’s for the buckwheat pancakes or the rangers demonstrating historic crafts, the history lives on, as does the legacy of Ed and Lizzie Mabry.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229

The term asylum is often used, but rarely understood. At its essence the term describes an institute that offers shelter and support to people who are mentally ill. Our society has often struggled with how to best care for people who are mentally unstable or labeled as insane.

Through time mental illnesses have been attributed to possession, poisoning, witchcraft, fate and many other tangible and intangible ideas. Prior to proper facilities, those who were ill were often treated with natural remedies, exorcisms, and physical punishments or worse.

The 1800s ushered in a new era for mental health treatment, asylums were erected and labeled as places of hope and compassion for those whose minds were haunted with unseen illnesses. North Carolina and Virginia were no different, with each state planning and facilitating many different units of care.

During the 19th century North Carolina had a great need for mental health care facilities; thankfully North Carolina had a health care champion, Dorothea Dix. Four major asylums opened in North Carolina to cover the majority of the state: Broughton in the west, Cherry in the east, Dorothea Dix in the south, and Umstead in the north. Three of these are still in operation and serving people of North Carolina. Southwestern Virginia also had an established facility. Originally named the Southwestern Lunatic Asylum the hospital was a self-sustaining farm, complete with a diary, horse barn, and orchard.

Mental capacity and mental illnesses were looked at differently during the 19th century than today. These spaces offered little safety one would expect from health facilities. The undertrained employees were working with overcrowding and slim staff. These conditions lead to misguided treatment and fear tuned these safety nets into many people’s worst nightmares.

It is important to note that asylums housed a diverse population from the criminally insane to impoverished people. As poverty ran rapid in Surry and Stokes counties and in Virginia in Carroll and Grayson counties, (and further) families and individuals who simple couldn’t sustain themselves often ended up in poor houses or asylums. Some recollections note a lady from Lowgap being sent to Butner State Hospital for mental illness sometime during the 1850s. Another lady was taken from her home in Hillsville, Virginia, leaving behind a young daughter. She was later taken to the Southwestern Lunatic Asylum.

Those who were housed in these locations suffered from much more than mental instability, being subjected to so-called treatments such as electric shock, beatings, hydrotherapy, straight jackets, teeth pulling, lobotomies, opium abuse and more. Inhumane treatment was commonplace at these facilities. The phrase “out of sight, out of mind,” is perfect for the treatment and allusivity of these places. Not only did the buildings hold patients, they hid them from the public eye, creating the haunting of minds that will never fade.

Years have passed and our knowledge of treatment and medical practices have grown to better understand mental illnesses. People have come to accept those who suffer from a haunted mind; protection from mistreatment is imperative. The horrors of asylums will likely never be forgotten but hopefully much has been learned.

Rachel Nealis is a longtime museum volunteer and supporter. She lives with her family in Mount Airy.

Editor’s Note: Community Comment is a periodic column in The Mount Airy News featuring commentary from community leaders in Mount Airy and Surry County.

Mount Airy City Schools (MACS) has been successful over the years due in major part to the community of which we belong. We are thankful for the outpouring of support throughout the pandemic which has resulted in, not only retaining our students, but growing in numbers. Our community has been very supportive, understanding that to return to face-to-face, five days a week we needed to follow CDC, NCDHHS, and local health department guidance. This has allowed us to be in school all of last year and this year. We have been blessed to have very little COVID impact, for example, we haven’t needed to quarantine sports teams or schools this year. Our Test-to-Stay program allows students and staff deemed as close contacts to remain at school as long as they are asymptomatic. This pilot prioritizes keeping everyone learning and growing while maintaining health and wellness measures.

Mount Airy is a community of caring people. We have great volunteers that serve our staff and students throughout the year by serving on the school board. Tim Matthews (chair), Ben Cooke (vice chair), Wendy Carriker, Kyle Leonard, Jayme Brant, Thomas Horton, and Randy Moore show service before self by earning no pay but making courageous decisions to support students. Our community is full of service-oriented people. We have members of the National Guard and previous military service members in Mount Airy. The United Fund of Surry is currently running a campaign that helps agencies such as Surry Medical Ministries, The Shepherd’s House, The Salvation Army, and many more. Everywhere you turn there are church groups and civic organizations such as Rotary making a difference. It is evident that the heart of Mount Airy City is caring and concern for others.

We hope to instill this love for service in our students throughout their academic career with us. We have the Leader in Me program in elementary schools that allows students to take ownership of their own personal and academic goals. They work with the school to run programs and events that give back to the community. They can earn service hours at school, working on school projects, with their churches, with scouts and other organizations. They also have Melody Makers and the Student Lighthouse Club. Each elementary school student is encouraged to build up service hours and experience.

Our middle school has clubs such as Interact Club, which is an arm of the local Surry Sunrise Rotary Club. They also have service opportunities within their Student Government Association, sports, and arts programs. Many opportunities within their middle school years show how they can give back to others that are less fortunate than themselves. There is a schoolwide toy drive and blood drives supported by Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA). There is always a chance to pay it forward with all the blessings that we have been given.

Mount Airy High School also works hard to make sure students understand how service is part of their academic life now and they can continue to give back to their community in the future. Groups such as HOSA, Interact, Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy, National Honor Society, and the Blue Bear Cafe all are examples of giving back and providing service to the community. We can name multiple groups each month that are involved in helping their neighbors and the community.

Mount Airy City Schools has embraced the same culture as our Mount Airy community, which is to care for our neighbor. In the 2018-2019 school year, students provided over 8,510 service hours which improved our community and school culture. A large emphasis for us is Vincent’s Legacy, Kindness Rocks which is a locally founded organization that helps show our community that Kindness Matters. You can learn more by visiting https://www.vincentslegacy.com/. We are thankful to live in such a wonderful community and help the next generation of students to realize how fulfilling it is to support those in need. In the current school year we hope to have even more service hours and opportunities for our students to serve others.

As a city member there are many ways that you can support education and your local school district. We hope that you will find a service group to join or send encouragement to those who are involved in service work and public service. We also know that you can volunteer to help a school, support a project, or mentor a child. We hope you will stand with educators as we do this difficult work to build up, encourage, and grow the next generation. A heart of care and encouragement along with service comes through serving others.

If you would like to be a part of our tradition of excellence and help build success for the future visit us at https://www.mtairy.k12.nc.us.

Have you ever said, “bless you,” when a person sneezed? Or have you picked a four-leaf clover? Blown out your birthday candles and made a wish? If you have, then you may be one of the 25% of the United States population who admits to having superstitious beliefs!

Superstitions are beliefs that things can bring good luck or bad luck to a person. For example, do you know someone who believes that wearing a favorite piece of clothing will cause their favorite football or basketball team to win? You may recognize one famous person who had this superstition: Michael Jordan. When Jordan led the North Carolina Tarheels to a National Championship in 1982, he started wearing his UNC practice shorts underneath his Chicago Bulls uniform, believing that they would bring him good luck and game wins.

Scientists believe that people have superstitious beliefs because they want to feel like they have some influence over forces outside of their control, especially supernatural forces that could cause them harm. In the South, this is especially true because of the area’s roots in farming as a way of life. Many superstitious beliefs center around farming and attempts to predict upcoming weather, which could be very important to a person whose entire livelihood depended on good crop production. Take the humble woolly worm for example. A common belief in Surry County and surrounding areas is that woolly worms, those fuzzy black and orange caterpillars, can predict how bad and long a winter season will be. It is believed that if you see woolly worms with large black bands, then the winter season will be long and harsh. Farmers would rather see woolly worms with bigger orange, red, or rust-colored bands because they believe that those colors predict milder winters and better planting conditions. Another animal-centered farming belief is the basis of Groundhog’s Day, where it is believed that if a groundhog sees its shadow on February 2nd, there will be six weeks of bad weather or continued cold, a bad omen for farmers who want to get a head start on their planting.

Online polls find that the most common superstition found in North Carolina is a fear of black cats. Many people think of black cats as bad luck, but not many know the origins of this belief. In the Middle Ages, black cats and other black animals, such as crows or ravens, were omens of bad events ahead, especially an upcoming death. Another common belief during this time period was that black cats were witches in disguise. In fact, historical documents show that during witchcraft trials, black cats were often killed because they were believed to be witches or a witch’s pet. Crossing paths with a black cat was believed to be a bad omen as well. It was believed that because the black cat was a sign of “evil,” having one cross your path meant that you were literally blocked from your heavenly path and your connection to God, making it bad luck to cross paths with one of these feline fortunetellers.

Of course, seeing someone turn completely around when encountering a black cat may seem silly to some, but what about other superstitions that are part of everyday life in the South? The most prominent example of this is the practice of saying, “bless you,” when someone sneezes. While the origins of saying “bless you” are not clear, there are several theories about why we do it. One belief is that when the Bubonic Plague was sweeping across Europe, it was known that sneezing was one of the plague’s earliest symptoms. It was hoped that by saying “God bless you” when a person sneezed it would protect that person from dying of the plague. Another belief was that when a person sneezed, the soul momentarily separated from the body, and that if someone didn’t bless the sneezing person’s body, a devil or demon could swoop in and take over the person’s body.

Many people who think of superstitions as something from the past may be surprised by the amount of superstitions that are still around today. Take the number 13 for example. The number 13 has long been thought of as an unlucky number, some tracing this belief back to the Norse Gods while others to Judas Iscariot. What is known is that the fear of the number 13 is prevalent in Western culture that a large number of multi-level buildings will skip a thirteenth floor and some airports will skip a thirteenth gate. In many Eastern countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, a similar fear exists, but instead of the number 13, the fear is of the number 4.

So, what are some superstitions that you have? What about your friends and family? As Halloween approaches, take notice of those small superstitions around you. Black cats in your neighbor’s Halloween décor. Your boss knocking on wood when mentioning something bad. A friend tossing spilled salt over their shoulder. These acts may seem silly, but really, do you want to take that chance?

Casey M. Wilson is a volunteer at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Mount Airy. For more information, contact the museum at 336-786-4478.

With cooler temperatures and colorful leaves, fall officially arrived on Sept. 22. For farmers, fall is one of the most important times of the year — harvest time. Food was gathered, preserved, and stored to last through the winter.

Harvests were a time for rural communities to come together and help one another with the work to be done. Afterwards, since community members were already gathered in one place, food, dance, music, and friendly competitions were had. Today, for many people, fall means all things pumpkin, festivals, and a visit to the local county fair. The fairs that we know today differ from those of yesteryear, but one thing remains the same: agriculture.

Fairs began in the United States in the early 1800s and were usually held in August, September, or October. They acted as a social and business event for people to gather together and showcase farmers’ best produce and livestock in competition. People sold products for home and farm, but fresh, hot food was a main draw. Entertainment consisted of music, races, rides, and sideshows. However, education was the prime goal of fairs which included agricultural history as well as introductions to new technology for the public and farmers alike.

Community fair exhibits often fed into the county fair and were a joint effort between community and county officials. The White Plains Community Fair of 1919 is one such example. Locals were encouraged to enter exhibits into the White Plains Community Fair and then take it to the county fair, all in order to have the best fair year for Surry County.

The Virginia-Carolina Fairgrounds, also called the Mount Airy Fairgrounds, held an annual county fair since the early 1900s. What we know as Veterans Memorial Park today was built on the Mount Airy Fairgrounds. Since 1947, the Surry County Agricultural Fair has been held there and continues to do so.

In 1941, attendance to the Mount Airy Fair was high and people came from Surry and its adjoining counties in North Carolina and Virginia. Tensions were high as the second World War raged in Europe and the United States had yet to join the fight outright until December of that year. The county fair served as a welcome momentary distraction and source of merriment.

War disrupts all aspects of life. Many fairs were cancelled due to lack of manpower and allocating all resources to supporting the war effort. However, when possible, fairs were held to keep a sense of normalcy and boost morale. Adding to the fun was a most unusual occurrence: The year boasted its own “Charlotte’s Web” (the book wouldn’t be published until 1952) and the newspaper reports below:

Amazing Spider Writes In His Web

An educated spider who writes in his web as he weaves it has been amazing the townspeople here for the past few days by producing legible writing. The spider was discovered at the home of Roy L. Campbell on Rockford Street on Tuesday morning and at that time his web clearly contained the words “Mt. Airy, NC” and “Winston-Salem” as well as a man’s name beginning “Mr.” with the rest undecipherable. The web was viewed by many interested persons Tuesday but the intelligent spider was not satisfied and tore it down during the night to replace it today. Construction is still going on at last reports.

In 1942, the Mount Airy American Legion Fair was dedicated to a “Victory” theme and was set to “offer fun-lovers of Mount Airy and the surrounding territory six big days and nights of fun and surcease from the worries of a war-torn world.” Due to the “Victory” theme, emphasis was put on the production of victory gardens and field crops. Other incentives included free admission to soldiers, sailors, and marines as well as a $50 war bond to be given to a school child.

The North Carolina State Fair began in 1853 and is in its 168th year. However, the fair has been cancelled multiple times: from 1861 to 1868 due to the Civil War and Reconstruction, in 1918 due to World War 1 and influenza, and from 1942 to 1945 due to World War II. The year 1953 marked the 100 year anniversary, but due to the cancellations, the Fair was only on its 86th edition that year. The State Fair began last week in Raleigh, and runs Oct. 14 through Oct. 24.

Make sure to support your local county fairs and keep the rich traditions and innovation of agriculture alive.

Justyn Kissam is the manager of learning at Kaleideum.

A cool, clear night in Mount Airy was split by the discordant clang of the fire bell. A dozen men leapt from their beds. They ran to the fire house and drew the hose reel wagons through the evening dark to the train depot where a wooden shed, “enwrapped in flames,” blazed ferociously next to the depot.

The crew of the company’s second unit soon had the hose connected to one of the town’s new fire hydrants and directed a steady stream of water on the building. They were joined by the first unit and the fire was extinguished in short order with only one injury.

That night, April 5, 1904, was the first fire alarm answered by the newly formed Mount Airy Hose Company.

M. A. Lowry, editor and owner of the Mount Airy News, made a last minute addition to the next day’s paper to praise the department.

“We do not believe any fire company could do better or quicker work,” he printed. “The water was plentiful, pressure all that could be desired, and the firemen worked heroically. … Ain’t you proud of the fire company and water works! We are. Three cheers for the fire boys!”

The appreciation was real. Mount Airy had suffered several major losses to fires that citizens in bucket brigades couldn’t contain. Fire was a constant demon in a world where flame was part of the everyday life.

The shed sat just a few dozen feet from stacks of lumber at the Banner Manufacturing yard. Those, in turn, sat next to businesses, homes, and acres of lumber stacked around four of the most vital businesses in the region; the furniture factories.

M.H. Sparger, secretary of the fire department, noted in his elegant penmanship that the fire fighters had “saved property consisting of lumber piled adjoining the building to the amount of about $4000 (conservatively equivalent to $120,000 today) and other property which would have been considerably damaged by heat.”

He also noted that their “unfamiliarity with the location of the hydrants” had hindered their work at first. The water mains, filled by gravity pressure and pumps from a well and tower on Lebanon Hill to the west of North Main Street, were a new and important tool in their kit.

That kit was important to the whole region. Fires and fire deaths were far too common. The local economy took a body blow whenever businesses were lost. Home fires, where victims were often children, were so much worse.

The town had organized a “hook, ladder, and bucket” company December 4, 1891, just 27 days before the New Years Eve conflagration that would destroy the magnificent Blue Ridge Inn and the entire block it sat on.

The 1904 company added hand-drawn and later horse-drawn hose reels that drew water from hydrants, wells, and creeks when possible. When it wasn’t there were tanks of water pressurized by hand pumps.

In 1917 the town bought it’s first fire engine for $8,500. It carried a 1,000-gallon tank powered by the engine.

The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History holds some of the early records of the region’s fire companies that included Sparger’s report. It also holds a back-of-the-page tabulations done by Mount Airy Fire Chief C. Shelton for his report to the town’s board on Jan. 6, 1925.

The company answered 26 calls in 1924 that had threatened $552,350 worth of property. Actual loss was only $9,882 and the department’s operational costs were noted as $2,000. He was working up to a request and he knew it was a big one. He wanted the board to authorize the purchase of a second fire truck, something many argued was an unnecessary extravagance.

Ultimately he was successful, and the town grudgingly authorized the purchase of a second American LaFrance truck for a whopping $12,500 in December 1926. While she sat on a rail car waiting to be unloaded a major business block burned to the ground. But later that year another business block was saved with the increased fire fighting capacity she brought.

Last week was National Fire Prevention Week, observed every year since 1922 on the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Begun on October 8th it burned well into the 9th, claimed hundreds of lives and thousands of homes and businesses. We are fortunate to have so many dedicated firefighters across this region. They teach us and our children how to escape a fire. They train to be prepared in case of emergency in the hopes none of us ever have to use that knowledge.

Perhaps the best way we can thank them is to make sure we have smoke detectors with good batteries.

We are infinitely fortunate to have them and we here at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History want to join with that editor of long ago and say, “Three cheers” for our fire fighters.

By Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a local freelance writer, researcher, and genealogist. At the time she wrote this column in 2019, she was the visitor services manager for the museum.

Around Sept. 26, 1780, men gathered in Elkin eager to lend a hand. Major Joseph Winston of Surry County gathered and recruited 150 men to meet at Big Elkin Creek to join the Overmountain forces waiting in Quackers Meadows near Morganton. These untrained and under-armed men were about to reignite the Revolution in North and South Carolina.

The Overmountain men marched from Morganton to Kings Mountain to engage the Tory forces commanded by Major Patrick Ferguson, who had been sent to invade South Carolina by General Lord Cornwallis. With limited resources on the warpath, many patriots were in extreme hunger once they reached the new state.

On Oct. 7, 1780, the Patriots forces slowly crept up to Ferguson and his men atop the hill at Kings Mountain. Using a combination of stealth, natural undergrowth, and tree line the Overmountain men were able to remain unseen until the right time. The battle ensued with 28 Americans and 290 British killed. Both sides depicted the battle as gruesome and horrible.

Ferguson realized he was beaten. Calling for a retreat, he headed down the hill still atop his horse. Shots rang out, mortally wounding the major. He died from the multiple gun shots that day at the age of 36. The loyalists surrendered after his death.

The events at Kings Mountain were pivotal in the fight for American Freedom. These Overmountain men defeated trained military soldiers with backcountry knowhow. Thomas Jefferson once spoke that Kings Mountain was the “The turn of the tide to success.” Another 16 skirmishes, battles, and altercations would occur before the Battle of Guilford Courthouse and many more after that would pin Patriot and Loyalist against one another before the American Revolution would be won.

Today, there are many places and events that commemorate, not only the battle of Kings Mountain, but the men who fought from the surrounding counties and states. Kings Mountain National Military Park is ran by the National Park Service. This site not only interprets the battle, but also colonial life.

The Overmountain Victory Trail Association is working to preserve and interpret the path that many of the Patriot soldiers would have take to reach Kings Mountain. In Surry County, part of the trail passes through Elkin. The trail stretches 330 miles and through four states, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Fifty-seven of those miles are complete and walkable.

If you have the time this week, take a stroll down the Eastern Trailhead of the Overmountain Victory Trail which runs through Historic Elkin. Look over the muster ground and camp site – imagine and remember the men who were willing to give it all, for Freedom!

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229.

It’s time to just come right out and say it.

The most enduring TV show of all time is “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“Star Trek” partisans still have something to say on this, especially at their fan conventions and comic-cons.

But no single TV series has played as long and more often than “Andy.” Sixty years after the Griffith show first aired on CBS, it airs as much as ever on multiple nostalgia TV networks at multiple times. And there can be no doubt why.

Since the 1990s Mount Airy has skillfully marketed itself as real-life Mayberry from the Griffith show. In the process Granite City has had a hand in keeping Mayberry mania alive to delight new generations. Griffith, the actor, was born and reared in Mount Airy, and in one marketing stroke of genius Griffith’s boyhood home now is a bed-and-breakfast available to everyone.

Mayberry memorabilia and nostalgia, from T-shirts to coffee mugs to posters, abound on Main Street Mount Airy. Mayberry-themed stores include Barney’s Cafe and The Loaded Goat grill, a takeoff on a favorite Griffith TV episode. Fans and others with just a casual interest alike flock to Granite City.

The most brilliant marketing idea of all is Mount Airy’s Mayberry Days, an annual town street festival about all things Mayberry. This year’s edition kicked off Saturday with a country-music concert downtown and heats up this week with lectures, music concerts and the big Saturday-morning parade downtown.

Mayberry Days draws folks from far and near, including some who dress up as Mayberry characters, march in the parade and then prowl about town. Two years ago on this page I introduced you to Knoxville, Tenn., resident Bo Pierce, who dresses up as Briscoe Darling complete with moonshine jug. Pierce sat down beside me one morning at Snappy Lunch, mentioned by name by Andy in one episode in a likely ad-lib.

Mount Airy’s contribution to the nationwide Mayberry mania is unmistakable.

And now Granite City’s shrewd marketing has broken onto the big screen. Two new Mayberry-themed films stem from Mayberry Days.

The crowd-funded, independent movie “Mayberry Man” that is about Mayberry Days will be shown during the festival this year. Producer Chris Howell said he got the idea while attending Mayberry Days, and he teamed with other Griffith show actors or children of actors who also attend the festival. A DVD will become available on the internet Oct. 1.

And then there is the documentary, “The Mayberry Effect,” which debuted on streaming services Aug. 31. Charlotte native and Clemmons filmmaker Chris Hudson said he was inspired by Mayberry Days characters, principally “Mayberry Deputy” David Browning of Bristol, Va.

“I realized there was a deeper story to tell about ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ ” Hudson told a Charlotte newspaper, “one with a lot of layers to it.” One of those layers is the modern-day story of Mount Airy. Hudson credits Mayberry with saving Mount Airy’s economy after the decline of the mills.

In return, Mount Airy has gone a long way in making Mayberry what it is today.

Lucille Ball of “I Love Lucy” fame does not have a statue in her hometown of Jamestown, N.Y., as Mount Airy has of Andy. A Jerry Seinfeld museum in New York City lasted only five days (a promotion by a streaming service). Beverly Hills still has its hillbilly mansion, but you can’t go in and there are no tours of the town in a Jethro replica truck. No town gives “Star Trek” an annual festival and parade complete with marching bands.

Not only has Mount Airy helped make the Griffith show the most enduring. It’s helped make Mayberry a piece of Americana.

© 2018 The Mount Airy News