Month: November 2021

Ima Smith’s WWII Scrap Book

November 10, 2021 /

We’ve recently scanned a scrap book of men and women from Alleghany County who served in World War II. The book belonged to Ima Smith of Cherry Lane and features news clippings about approximately 150 people.

Download a pdf, here.

The images are a little rough, at 80 years old, but the text is readable and the information is priceless. Clippings came from the Alleghany News and other local newspapers.

Page from Ima Smith’s WWII Scrap Book.

The Alleghany News has been a good partner and supporter of the Historical Museum since it began. The scrapbook was donated to the Museum by Ima Smith.

Armistice Day 2021

November 8, 2021 /
L-to-R- James Alley, Andrew Higgins and William Weaver. Three Alleghany men who died in 1918 while serving in France during the First World War.

World War I officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919. However, fighting had ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954 the 83rd Congress amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With this legislation, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

Info from the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs


  • Photograph of James L. Alley, wearing a worn suit and newsboy cap, standing outside on a field at an unidentified location. Alley was from the town of Sparta in Alleghany County, NC. He served in World War I as a Private in the 313th Infantry, 79th Division, U.S. Army. – From the NC State Archives .
    James Levi Alley was born January 2, 1893, in Alleghany County. He “Died of Accident” July 18, 1918, at the age of 25 while serving in France in World War I. He was buried in Shiloh Cemetery.
  • Portrait of Andrew J. Higgins, wearing his Marine Corps uniform, standing in front of an American flag. He was from Alleghany County, NC., and served during World War I in the U.S. Marine Corps. – From the NC State Archives .
    Andrew Jackson Higgins was born on August 23, 1892 and lived in Ennice when he registered for the Service. He “Died of Accident” June 24, 1892, while serving in the Marines in France.
  • Cropped real-photo postcard of William E. Weaver of Alleghany County, NC., shown standing in his full Army uniform, with a rifle at his side and a decorative sword on his belt. He served during World War I in Company G, 28th Infantry, 1st Division, U.S. Army. – From the NC State Archives .
    Corporal William Everett Weaver was born in June of 1897, in Piney Creek. He was killed in action, on July 19, 1918, at Chaudun, France. He is listed on the “Tablets of the Missing” at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, France.

From the U.S. Army Center of Military History website

Interesting Observations of Life in Alleghany

November 3, 2021 /

In 2007, Professor Susan E. Keefe of the Department of Anthropology at Appalachian State University led an ethnographic field school in Alleghany County. An ethnographic field school allows students to use the techniques of the anthropologist (principally participant observation and interviewing) in order to describe and understand the meaning of a people’s way of life. Students in the field school were placed with host families with whom they lived for four weeks. For the most part, students learned by living and talking to members of their host family, the family’s relatives, their friends, and their neighbors.

The research papers in the collection were produced by six students in the field school. While each paper investigates only a single aspect of life there, the collection as a whole gives insight into the culture of this rural Appalachian county.

Alleghany County lies in the northwestern corner of North Carolina. It has one of the smallest populations of any county in the state (9,591 in 1990), and the county seat, Sparta (population 1,957), is the only town in the county. The economy is based on agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. The Blue Ridge Parkway winds along the southern boundary of the county, introducing tourists since the 1930s to the natural beauty of the area.

– Information from the Preface


Please, Don’t Tread on Me: A Case Study of a Dairy Farm in the Appalachian South
-Amer Awad

The Effect of the Blue Ridge Parkway on Appalachian Farmers
-Shawna Chesto

Women’s Work in Alleghany County, NC
-Heidi M. Efird

Identity in a Mountain Family
-Kathryn L. Staley

It’s All Legal Until You Get Caught: Moonshining in the Southern Appalachians
-Jason Sumich

Making and Marketing Baskets: A Case Study of Basket Makers in Alleghany County, NC
-Miyuki Honda

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