Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society, Inc.

P.O. BOX 817, Sparta, N.C. 28675

President: M.O. Zimmerman				
Vice President: Robert J. Andrews
Secretary-Treasurer: Lou Reid Landreth

Vol. 4, No. 1		 	           March 1982 			BULLETIN NO. 10

From the President:

	We apologize for having to cancel the regular February meeting due to adverse weather condition—known as SNOW! This should not be a problem for the balance of the year.

	Let me remind you again that it is time to renew your 1982 membership.  Our records indicate that only about 50% of the members have paid up, so if you have not already taken care of this important item, please do so as soon as possible.

	Work is progressing on the “Alleghany County Heritage” book project and interest in doing the Family History sketches is evident.  However, we need more advance book orders on hand or we won’t be able to have the book published.  We need 1700 advance orders to assure publication.  So PLEASE get your orders in to the Society without delay and encourage all interested persons you know to place an advance order NOW.  

	The Society’s office is located upstairs over Farmer’s Hardware (entrance on Main Street) and someone is there to discuss the format of the book and ideas about writing family histories during the following hours: Monday, 2:00-4:00; Wednesday, 12:00-2:00; and Friday, 10:00-1:00.  

	Regular meetings of the Society are held the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 p.m.  Unless otherwise announced the meetings are held in the downstairs conference room of the Workmen’s Federal Savings and Loan Association.  We encourage your attendance at these meetings.  Bring a friend!

	We visited Burr Bost’s Genealogical Research Class at the Alleghany High School and found the working on various historical sketches.  We’re including another example of their work in this Bulletin.  Please contact Mrs. Bost.

FROM THE COMMITTEES:

CEMETERY: With Spring weather approaching, we hope to get out and round up the few remaining cemeteries to be surveyed.  As we’ve mentioned before, we will then have to locate all the County’s cemeteries on maps and also determine a format for publication of the data we’ve obtained.  So—there’s still a huge project ahead!!

HISTORY: Early in the month, we were able to have two workshop sessions on writing family histories.  They were conducted by Bill Reasonover of the Hunter Publication Company.  One was held at the BROC Lunch Program at Laurel Springs and the other was at the Cherry Lane Community Building. We feel that these sessions generated a lot of interest and we are looking forward to more of these workshops in the future.  The next scheduled workshop will be at the Glade Creek Community Building, April 1st.

	A few family histories have been submitted to the Society’s Book Committee.  However, response is not what we’d like it to be.  We feel that people are interested in the proposed book “Alleghany County Heritage” and the history it will contain.  It appears that a lot of folks are talking about their family histories and making n effort to get them written. Hopefully, the results of these efforts will soon be coming in.

LIBRARY: Mr. Robert B. Weaver has donated a copy of his newly published book “WILLIAM WEAVER, JR. AND HIS DESCENDENTS” to the Societies Library.  We are pleased to have this addition to our Genealogical material.

MUSEUM: A special thanks is due Chairman Roy Crouse who has spent considerable time and effort trying to locate new space for our Museum.  He followed up on many leads and possibilities—all with some advantages and some disadvantages.

	As this Bulletin “goes to press” Roy is in the process of transferring our Museum items from their location in the Old Pipe Factory building to a section of the Village Square complex.  We are grateful to Don Alexander, who is graciously donating some rooms to us for storage purposes. The Village Square is on Sparta’s North side and was formerly known as Charles’ Motel.  We are assured dry, safe protection for our Museum items until we can obtain a more ideal location.  Again we appeal to all members to be on the lookout for ideas and possibilities for our Museum.

GENEALOGICAL INQUIRIES:

	Dr. Timothy Reeves, Morris, Minnesota, would like to know:

1.	Who were the parents of Col. Allen Gentry b. 28 Oct 1807, m. Rebecca Reeves b 2 Oct 1806, both buried in Shiloh?
2.	Who were the parents of Swinfield Anderson b ca 1890, m. Nancy Davis? Their daughter Roxy Anderson m Calvin Reeves b ca 1837.

Mrs. Edgar A. Burt, Fairborn, Ohio, would like to know if anyone has an old Bible, newspaper item or other record to help establish the birth date of William Lewis Harris.  It is believed that his birth date on tombstone at Antioch Church is wrong.  It states 4 March 1794-27 Feb 1898. The U.S. Census records show ages which would place his birth around 1804.

	Mr. Ray K. Edwards, Jr., Bel Air, Maryland, asks if anyone has a Bible record, obituary notice or other record which would authenticate the relationship of Isom (Isham) Edwards b 14 Oct 1825 in Ashe County, N.C. (died 9 March 1909) to Young Edwards b ca 1790 in Ashe County, wife Catharine _______, b 1793.  Isom and Young were living next to each other in 1850 census and 1860 census.

	Seeking information on the HARRIS family of the Roaring Gap area, from date of settlement to 1894.  Nee information and copes of photographs for “Alleghany County Heritage” book on William Lewis and Hanna Smith Harris, Henderson and Rhoda Simmons Harris, John C and Frances _____Harris, William L. and Frances __C____Harris.  Please write or call Earl Dean Harris.

	Need information on the children of Thomas and Lydia Hoppers Joines. Did they have a daughter by the name of Martha who married Francis or Marion Brown?  A daughter Mary (Polly or Pop) who married Richard (Dick) Baugess?  A daughter name Laura? A son named John Linville Joines born about 1836? Any information about this family will be appreciated.  Need the names of children and grandchildren.

	Also need the maiden name of William Hoppers’ wife, Catherine, born November 5, 1807, died December 25, 1878.

Speaking of History, the following was submitted by Mrs. Sara C. Allen of Hiddenite, N.C. from the material of Robert Allen, Esq.  It is copied from a book entitled “Laws of North Carolina, 1879.

CHAPTER 22

AN ACT TO INCOPORATE THE TOWN OF SPARTA, IN ALLEGAHNY COUNTY

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Body politic.	Section 1.  That the town of Sparta be and the same is hereby incorporated by the name and style of Sparta, and shall be subject to all the provisions contained in chapter one hundred and eleven of Battle’s Revisal not inconsistent with this act.

Corporate Limits.  SEC. 2.  That the corporate limits of said town shall be as follows: One mile from the centre of the new court house, east, west, north and south, and shall run with the four cardinal points of the compass, making said court house the centre of a boundary, and making said town two miles square.  

Officers.	SEC. 3.  That until officers shall be elected as hereinafter provided, the government of said town shall be vested in the following named mayor and commissioners, to-wit: Mayor, W.E. Hardin; commissioners, R.C. Gentry, W.K. Holbrook, H.F. Jones; marshal, W.S. Norman.

Election.	SEC. 4.  An election shall be held on the first Monday in May, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine and each successive hear thereafter for a mayor, three commissioners and a marshal, and persons living within the corporate limits of said town and qualified to vote for members of the general assembly shall be deemed electors for said town, said election to be held by the authorities in the manner prescribed in chapter one hundred and eleven, Battles’ Revisal, and said officers shall be chosen from the qualified voters of said town.

Powers.  	SEC. 5. For the good government of said town the said officers and their successors shall have all the powers, rights and privileges, and exercise the jurisdiction be governed by the rules and subject to the same pains and penalties for neglect of duty conferred or inflicted upon mayor, commissioners and marshal of incorporated towns by chapter one hundred and eleven of Battle’s Revisal.
	
	SEC.5. That this act be in force from and after its ratification.

Ratified the 25th day of February, A.D. 1879.

Charles R. Roe

	Charles R. Roe, better known as C.R., was born in Rural Retreat, Virginia.   He met his wife, the former Julia Ann West, of Kinston, while teaching in Chowan County.  While teaching in Chowan County, Mr. Roe heard about a job in Sparta.  The town of Rural Retreat is only forty miles from Sparta, so through a feeling of “home sickness” Roe and hi wife moved to Sparta.  There he accepted the position of principal at Sparta High School.  
	Within two years, Mr. Roe bough a house and six acres of land adjoining the Sparta High School.  At this time, Mr. Roe and his family made their home in Alleghany County.
	When Roe became principal of the school, he immediately began to repair the school and its grounds.  In the 1930’s, there was neither a playing field nor a gymnasium.  To construct these facilities posed a problem.  The state had limited federal funds, and the people of the county had the task of raising the largest portion.  They acquired funds by putting on square dances and plays.  
	To make this money go farther, Roe and the boys at the school bought parts of three boundaries of timber and milled this into 2x12’s.  They hauled in sand, gravel, and rocks to make their own concrete.  In Roe’s words, he and those boys, “built that gym.”
	The playing field was built in pretty much the same way.  Roe and his boys got “an ole two-horse plow and a coop pan” and plowed and scooped and made a baseball field.  Roe also worked diligently each year to make improvements so the attendance would increase.
	Mrs. Roe also taught at the high school.  But even with both of tem working, thir salaries were less than they wanted for their family.  
	So Roe looked for something to supplement his income.  He decided to work in a store since he had once done so as a younger man.  He decided he would resign from teaching as soon as he found a store he liked.  He opened the Western Auto store on June 21, 1941.
	The bombing of Pearl Harbor took place six months later.  Many of the county’s young men joined the armed services.  Roe tried to resign his position at Sparta High School but found there was no one to take his place.  Instead, Mrs. Roe resigned and took responsibility of the store upon herself. For the next five years, Roe worked with his wife before and after school and on Saturdays.  
	When World War II ended, he was at last able to resign from his job at the school. Roe and his wife took turns teaching over the years to help their retirement benefits.  When they both retired from teaching, they each had thirty-one years of service behind them.  
	Roe’s teaching didn’t stop with retirement.  For years he taught the oldest adult class in the Sparta Methodist Church.  He was also superintendent of the church’s Sunday school.  
	Mr. Roe was an active member of the Sparta Masonic Lodge and was chairman of a fund-raising drive for the Alleghany Memorial Hospital.  This project surpassed its $165,421 goal by several thousand dollars.  
	Mr. Roe will be fondly remembered by his family, friends, and students.  But many people who never knew him will benefit from his contribution to Alleghany County.  
By: Burr Bost and						This sketch was prepared
Karin Farmer as told						by the Genealogical Research
by Mrs. C.R. Roe.						Class at Alleghany High 
With information						School.
provided by an article
by Arlene Edwards, 1976
Winston-Salem Journal

ATTENTION NEW MEMBERS!

	If you have items of interest such as genealogy inquiries, old obituaries or bits of historical information that you would like to have published in the Bulletin, please send then to the Society.