Burial Customs of the Hill Country

Terry Thornton will be speaking at the Lamar County (Alabama) Historical Society meeting on September 10 on Burial Customs of the Hill Country. The area includes Monroe and Itawamba Counties in Mississippi, so if you are in the area, I'm sure you'll enjoy Terry's presentation. The meeting will be held in Vernon, Alabama.

Sisters to Write History of Suggs Pottery

Two sisters, descendants of the founders of Suggs Pottery, plan to write a history of the family business. The pottery on Jug Shop Road near the Monroe-Itawamba county line was founded in the early 1900s.

Carolina Heritage Day

The Carolina Community is planning to celebrate 174 years of community history on Sunday, September 30, 2007, from 9:30 a.m. – until. Carolina Heritage Day organizers are excited about hosting past and present residents, former students, historians, and friends at the Carolina Community Center. Admission to the event is free; donations will be accepted for community center restoration.

The community was established around 1833 when pioneers from North and South Carolina began to settle in the newly opened Mississippi territory. Because the foothills of North Mississippi strongly resembled the settlers’ original home, the community became known as Carolina.

Many of those original pioneers’ descendants call the community home today. It is hoped that the Carolina Heritage Day will generate interest in the community’s rich history. You can discover more about Carolina’s past at http://www.roadtocarolina.com.

Everyone attending the event is invited to dress ‘old fashioned’ as way of participating in the community’s celebration. There will be a covered dish lunch at noon.

Activities will include a grist mill demonstration, Carolina classroom re-enactment, wagon train, story time, dulcimer music, quilting, and others. Displays will include Chickasaw artifacts, Carolina School day photos, family photos, and more. A time schedule of these activities will be published prior to the event, but most of the historical activities will occur in the afternoon.

Nearby cemeteries contain the graves of many of the area’s first residents. These cemeteries include the Carolina Cemetery, Wiygul Cemetery, Conwill-Goodwin Cemetery, Myers-Shumpert Cemetery, New Chapel Cemetery, Elliot Cemetery, Boozer Cemetery, and Bean Cemetery. Local genealogists will be able to assist visitors in locating the graves of these first settlers.

For more information, please call Thomas Conwill (963-3756), Mike Bethay (963-3783), Patsy Pettit (963-2748), or Curtis Hall (963-2478). The Carolina Community Center is located on Carolina Road in Itawamba County, Mississippi.

A Must Read

If you aren't reading Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi on a regular basis, you are missing a genuine treat!

Argonne Days

Horace Baker shares his memories of World War I in this book which has been republished. Read about it in the Aberdeen Examiner's article.

Judge Senter

The Senter family is important to Itawamba County's history. His branch of the family moved to Monroe County. There is an excellent article on Judge L. T. Senter, Jr. in today's Sun Herald.

A Google Books Find

I was googling for a piece of information and came across a book that deals with Mississippi families. Barbara Dane's Crossin' the River deals with the Gilmore, Fooshee, and Tutor families of Pontotoc, Monroe, and Itawamba counties.

Aberdeen's Gordon House Hotel

Some Monroe County researchers have located a photograph of the ruins of Aberdeen's old Gordon House hotel. You can see a photo of the ruins and read a brief history of the hotel on Monroe County, MSGenWeb.

Gideon Lincecum of Monroe County

Collaborative research is being done on Monroe County GenForum. Check out this great post about Gideon Lincecum and the followups. There's an earlier post that may be interesting too.