2016 4.pdf Davie Dossier, October 2016 page 1
DAVIE DOSSIER
Issued by
Davie County Historical and Genealogical Society
Mocksville, North Carolina
October 2016, Issue 4
Vintage Photographs
Davie Dossier, October 2016 page 2
DAVIE COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
President, Linda Leonard
Vice President, Margaret Cevasco
Secretary, Pat Reilly
Treasurer, Marie Roth
Board of Directors, Claude Horn
Dossier Editor, Marie Roth
Webmaster, Marie Roth
Our Website, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com.com/~ncdavhgs has these features:
All the churches in Davie County
Cemeteries in Davie County with locations
Names on the War Memorial in Mocksville
Index to Bible Family Records at DCPL
Order blanks so you don’t tear up Dossier
History of nine newspapers in Davie County
Meeting Dates and Programs
Guardian Accounts, Davie Co., 1846-1859
Apprentice Bonds, Davie Co., 1829-1959
1974 booklet about old schools in Davie
Branson’s NC Business Directories for Davie Co.
Sources for black family history
Another Website about Davie County genealogy and history:
http://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Davie_County%2C_North_Carolina
Meetings are on the fourth Thursdays at 7 pm at Davie County Library History Room.
DCHGS PROGRAMS IN 2016:
January 28: Program chair, Margaret Cevasco will lead a discussion about historical myths. A true/false set of
questions will be featured.
February 25: Honoring Doris Frye; Mark Hager talk about Back Country Culture
March 17: Bill Jamerson talk and entertainment about the Civilian Conservation Corps
April 28: video presentation by historical interrupter, Frank McMahon from Ft. Dobbs, foods/cooking in the old days
May 7: assist with Daniel Boone Festival
June 30: Judge Jimmy Myers presents cemetery laws
August: meet with Yadkin Valley Historical Association -- canceled
September 22: How to Research Your Family Tree, Cindy Green from the LDS Family History Center
October 22, Saturday: 10:00 am, Saturday tour of Cooleemee Plantation
November 17: Brent Shoaf, Registrar of Deeds for Davie County at library
New Life Member: Charles Crenshaw
See back page for details. Tax deductible
FUTURE CONFERENCES
National Genealogical Society -- May 4-7, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale FL; see www.ngsgenealogy.org
YOU MISSED IT, BUT YOU CAN GO NEXT YEAR: In May of 2017, NGS will meet in Raleigh !!
RootsTech – February 8 – 11, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah http://www.rootstech.org/
Federation of Genealogical Societies – August 30–Sep. 2, 2017 in Pittsburg PA; http://www.fgs.org/cpage.php?pt=43
Davie Dossier, October 2016 page 3
VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS
In a shoebox, or a closet, or a drawer, you’ve got
an old picture of an ancestor that is unique. Quick !
Where is it? This edition will highlight old photos and
give some guidelines for good care and for sharing them
with your kin folks who would love to have a copy.
I recently received 15 old photos from a newly-
found cousin living in Indiana. None was labeled, and
the cousin wasn’t interested in them since he didn’t
know who they are. I have been successful in
identifying a few of the old pictures, and I’ll describe my
method in this edition. Another cousin sent me almost
100 pictures of various time periods, some of which
were labeled. I am currently writing books about my
four great grandparents and there were some that were
very helpful in both batches. The surnames are Benge
and Rash (Alleghany and Wilkes counties) and
Richardson and Beck (Davie County).
Organizing: I finally realized I had to get
organized. I had one tintype (3 by 5 inches) of my great
great grand-parents, Addison M. and Sarah Jane
Blaylock Richardson. He died in 1907, so that’s an old
picture taken here in Davie. I pulled out the really old,
valuable pictures after I scanned all of them, and then I
put them into separate envelopes. I wrote on the
envelopes the names of the people, the location, and
approximate dates. I numbered each envelope, and I
made a spreadsheet that contained these numbers and a
brief description.
Sharing online: I’ve shared some of them on
FindAGrave. For an example, open the search page of
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi and type
152111944 into the Memorial # blank.
Another way to digitize old photos is to take a
picture with your smart phone. My current iPhone takes
better pictures than my expensive camera, and it’s
always with me. My scanner and my camera don’t get
used very much.
If your photograph is framed, that’s much harder
to get a good copy. Old photos in elaborate frames
would probably get damaged if you took them apart. By
being careful about reflections, you can use your camera
or phone to copy a framed photo. However, if the glass
is convex, you will get reflections from every direction.
That is really hard to do. A professional photographer in
Asheboro told me that he has equipment just for this
purpose. It’s a black box with a hole in the top for the
camera or phone to “see” into the box. There are slits in
the side of the box that let light in so that it doesn’t make
a glare.
Who is this? This is one of the photos that was in
the Richardson set of unidentified pictures. She seems
to be about 50, wearing what might be a widow’s dress,
and very serious. The print on the mat says “Fink Bros.,
Montezuma, Ia”. Ding !! My great grandfather, Thomas
Jasper Richardson shows up on the 1870 census, instead
Davie Dossier, October 2016 page 4
of in Davie, in Montezuma, Iowa. He is with his
married brother, George W., George’s wife, and their
two year old son, Jasper who was born in NC. They
hadn’t been there long, and they didn’t stay; they all
came back to Davie in a year or so. The cousin who sent
me this picture is a great grandchild of Thomas, also.
This is not a picture of George’s wife – she was
in her twenties. So I went to Ancestry.com and in the
search blanks, I asked for all the women in Montezuma,
Iowa in 1870, who were born in North Carolina. Up
pops Grace M. Cheshire, 39, with her husband, John W.
Cheshire, and their six children. I found her there in
1880, widowed; and, I found her there in 1860. But, I
found John W. Cheshire in 1850 in Davie County !!
More research showed that he lived in Sheffield and that
Cheshire School was named for him. Other research
showed that she was from Yadkin County (called
Southern Division of Surry back then) and her maiden
name was Vestal. The most incredible thing I learned
was that John W.’s mother was Sarah M. Richardson
(John’s info on FindAGravecom). I’m not sure how
they’re related – more research needed. So my great
grandfather had a reason to go there. It is about 972
miles from Sheffield to Montezuma, and I could not
figure out why they had gone so far. But consider life in
1870. The South was in shambles from the Civil War,
so perhaps it was an attempt to better their lives. There
was a railroad through Iowa and the company was
establishing towns to benefit their business. Sometimes,
if the person who created or added to a page on
FindAGrave is a relative, you can share info. I’ve had
success with this by clicking on the submitter’s name
and sending a message.
In 1900, Grace was living with her daughter’s
family at 916 Grand Avenue, Lee, Iowa. Typing this
into Google Maps and then using Street View shows
many five-story city businesses. Sometimes, you can
find the actual homes, but not in this case.
Book about NC photographers: If you
want to learn more about photographers in North
Carolina from 1842-1941, you would enjoy this book,
Photographers in North Carolina. Davie County had 2
listed: Samuel Warren and Robert E. Fraley. Purchase
info: https://www.amazon.com/PHOTOGRAPHERS-
NORTH-CAROLINA-Century-1842-
1941/dp/0865263116 264 pages. I used this book to
help identify the photographer of one of the fifteen old
photos I was given. There was a portrait of a woman 18-
22 years old that was either Cora (born in 1883) or Laura
Richardson (born in 1877). Cora’s grandson was the
original owner of the picture. Stamped on the mat was
“W.J. Stimpson, Statesville, N.C.” With this book, I
found William Jasper Stimpson’s bio and he was in
Statesville from 1889-1920s. There were three photos of
obviously the same woman, so I figured it was Cora
because she’d probably have more pictures of herself
than her sister.
Saving images: on your hard drive, on an
external hard drive, on a CD, at a neighbor’s house, in a
printed book you write. A recent method is to save to
the Cloud. There are many different programs for this:
Google Photos, DropBox, Pinterest, Flickr, OneDrive,
iCloud, Box. Beginning space is free.
Labeling: Besides writing on the envelope, there are
other ways you can label photos. We get very upset with
relatives who don’t write names on the backs of photos,
but with all our current constant snapping of images,
we’re not doing any better than they did. One way is to
save photos to our computer and name the file with
information. Example: image file name: 2006 10 09 Ray
Craig in Iraq gives us the exact date, who is in the
picture and where. Sometimes, even this file name gets
lost if it’s transferred to a smart phone or tablet.
Captions: I searched a long time for a way to write
the description under the photo. There are lots of apps
that put big tacky words all over the picture, but that’s
not what I wanted. Finally, I discovered that if I open a
photo in Paint, the old program you’ve had on PCs for a
long time, that there’s a way to do this. Once your photo
is open in Paint, you will notice a small square at the
center bottom of the picture. I had assumed the function
was to stretch the picture, but instead it adds blank
space. Pull it down just enough to insert some words.
Then click A at the top which opens the text function.
Start typing in that blank space. You can resize and
relocate words when you have your description finished.
When through adding words, click Save As and rename
so you don’t change your original picture. If my original
file name is 1995 Bill.jpg and I edit it, I change the name
to 1995 BillE.jpg with the E designating that I edited it.
Davie Dossier, October 2016 page 5
Which picture would
you rather receive?
The image on the right
includes the caption
which was added
using Paint program.
See page 4, right
column for directions.
Types of old photographs:
Tintype, 1856 – 1942
Carte de Viste, 1859 – 1870
Cabinet Card 1866 – 1906
Post cards 1910 – 1925
To learn more, see
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/photographs/overview
The unidentified image at the right is a tintype with sections peeled
off.
We need somebody to volunteer to start a Web site for people to
submit photographs of Davie County people who are unidentified.
Then others could look through them and possibly ID them.
Quote about photos:
Time marches on until the magic of the camera commands HALT.
(on an old paper bag from a photo company)
While I was making my spreadsheet, using my iPad Pro, the small tintype of my great grandparents vanished. I looked
everywhere to find it. Later, when I picked up my iPad, I discovered that the magnet on the bottom had stuck the tintype
onto it. I marveled at the vast differences in time and technology.
Davie Dossier, October 2016 page 6
DAVIE COUNTY SPECIAL TOPICS OF RECENT DOSSIERS
Year Quarter Topic
2012 4 Newspapers
2013 1 1924 newspaper article, electricity in Mocksville
2013 2 US Census
2013 3 Trains
2013 4 First Court House
2014 1 100 years ago; Marchmont; Clement Plantation
2014 2 Louise Stroud articles
2014 3 Davie midget in circus
2014 4 Stephen Morgan Smith
2015 1 1915 articles
2015 2 Origin of place names
2015 4 Serendipity; tatting; Binkley family
2016 1 Lee family
2016 2 Civilian Conservation Corps
2016 3 Books about Davie County
2016 4 Vintage photographs
INTERESTING WEB SITES
http://www.digitalnc.org/exhibits/digital-davie/ Vintage photographs of Davie County
http://www.deadfred.com/ Look for photos of your ancestor, or submit unidentified picture for others to identify
http://ncpedia.org/category/entry-source/dictionary-no Dictionary of North Carolina Biographies
https://archive.org/index.php free books, audio, and video
https://www.hathitrust.org/ free books online
https://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/ list and map of archive buildings
http://extremegenes.com/ weekly program about genealogy and research. You can download as a podcast with their app.
HOLIDAY GIFTS FROM THE GENEALOGIST
Family history bound book, self-published on Lulu.com or Flickr or other self-publishing sites.
Framed vintage photographs
Your own bibliography
An audio CD of you describing your parents and grandparents
A family trip back to the original homeplace, or where the grandparents lived.
A book of maps marked with locations of homes, schools, churches, and cemeteries.
Davie Dossier, October 2016 page 7
ORDERING BOOKS AND MAPS
Title Author Cost No. Cost
Davie County. A Brief History, paperback James W. Wall, 128 pages $ 6.50
The Boone Families in Davie County Wall, Howell Boone, Flossie Martin $ 8.00
Davie County Marriages 1836-1900 Nancy K. Murphy $25.00
Davie County Marriages 1901-1959 Nancy K. Murphy $25.00
Davie County Cemeteries, a 2-volume set D.C. Historical/Gen. Soc. $55.00
1850 Federal Census-Davie County Forsyth Genealogical Society $15.00
1860 Federal Census-Davie County Nancy K. Murphy and Everette Sain $20.00
1870 Federal Census-Davie County Nancy K. Murphy and Everette Sain $20.00
Lagle Land Grant $ 7.00
Hughes Historical, 1700's, drawn in 1977 $ 6.00
J.T. Alderman, 1887 $ 6.00
Wilson F. Merrell, 1928 $ 6.00
POSTCARDS OF DAVIE CO. SCENES, (set of 8) $ 2.50
CD of all issues Davie Dossier since 1987 $ 7.00
Davie County Heritage Book, cost is $45; Make check to Davie County Heritage Book.
Use DCHGS address below.
The Historic Architecture of Davie Co., cost is $30;
History of Davie County, hardback, by James W. Wall, 449 pages; cost is $30;
Make check to Davie County Public Library. Use DCHGS address below.
The Civil War Roster of Davie County by Mary Alice Miller Hasty and Hazel Miller Winfree incorporates
biographical and military service sketches of 1,147 Davie County Civil War veterans. Non-NC resident cost is $60. NC
resident cost is $64.26. Checks should be made out to M & M Books and sent to Mary Alice Hasty, 105 East Brick
Walk Court, Mocksville NC 27028.
History of Davie County Schools, 318 pages, by Marie Benge Craig Roth has photos, locations, longitude/latitude,
names of students, and teachers. There is an 18 page index of 3,222 names. A chronology describes the evolution of the
school system in Davie. Make check to Marie Roth for $40.26 for non-residents and $43 for NC resident. Order: 276
Park Ave., Mocksville NC
Davie County in World War One by Marie Benge Craig Roth has 670 biographies of Davie men and women who
served, photographs, old letters, description of military bases, and extensive index. 400 pages. Make check to Marie
Roth for $42.47 for non-residents and $45 for NC resident. Order: 276 Park Ave., Mocksville NC 27028.
Davie County Veterans’ Memorial, by Marie Benge Craig Roth has lists of all war deaths and biographies and photos
of WW2, Korean, Vietnam, and Beirut Bombing deaths. Tom Ferebee’s 32 minute talk at the dedication in 1987 is
included. $31.23 for non-resident and $33 for NC resident. Order: 276 Park Ave., Mocksville NC 27028.
Remembering Davie County Protection and Service Personnel by Marie Benge Craig Roth contains biographies of the
five law enforcement personnel who died on duty and also photos and descriptions of the monument erected in their
memory. The monument also honors all first responders in Davie County. Order: 276 Park Ave.; total cost $17.
Davie County in the Spanish-American War by Marie Benge Craig Roth contains biographies of the 15 men who
served in this war and the resulting war in the Philippines. Order: 276 Park Ave.; total cost $20
Cana Connections, 201 pages, by Betty Etchison West; Life in Cana in the Thirties and Forties and Special People
with Cana Connections. There are many biographies and photos of people and buildings. Order from Betty West, 3532
NC Hwy. 801 North, Mocksville NC 27028. Make check to Betty West for $35, which includes tax and shipping.
Looking Back at Davie County II by Charles Crenshaw and Ron Smith. $45. Mail orders to Charles Crenshaw, 421
Park Avenue, Mocksville NC 27028
DCHGS, 371 North Main Street, Mocksville NC 27028
You are encouraged to send articles and queries to be published in the next issue.
Send to DCHGSList@gmail.com
Davie Dossier, October 2016 page 8
Davie county historical/genealogical society
371 North Main Street
Mocksville NC 27028
If you would like to receive your Dossier as a PDF attachment in an E-mail instead of a paper copy,
please send an E-mail message to the editor at dchgslist@gmail.com.
Please state “E-mail my Dossier instead of mailing a paper copy” and include your E-mail address. This
saves money, time, postage, effort, and paper. The graphics are clearer, and you can just click on links.
The number beside your name, above, shows the year for which you last paid $5 dues. Example: if you have a 15 by your
name, you have paid dues through 2015. 2017 Dues are due now!
MEMBERSHIP for a calendar year is still just $5.00/year. Life Membership is $100 per person.
We are 501(c)(3) and dues are tax deductible.
Below is a registration form for your use; checks, payable to the Society.
DAVIE COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY (DCHGS)
Davie County Public Library, 371 Main Street
Mocksville, North Carolina 27028
NAME ________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS _____________________________________________________________________
E-MAIL ADDRESS ______________________________________________________________
Send my copy by E-mail instead of paper; yes, no