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County to celebrate Transylvania Heritage Day 2006 on May 20th
The second annual Transylvania Heritage Day celebration returns to the American Legion in downtown Brevard on Saturday May 20, greatly expanded from the highly successful first event in August of 2005.
A large tent area in the adjoining American Legion parking lot at 55 E. Jordan Street will more than triple the space. The event opens at 10:00 am on Saturday morning and closes in late afternoon at about 5:00 p.m.
Transylvania Heritage Day 2006 falls on a most important milepost in local history — the 145th anniversary of May 20, 1861 — the day a brand new mountain county passed from being a mere concept on paper to a concrete, functioning reality.
Seven decades prior, in circa 1790, the first small wave of settlers arrived on the upper French Broad River pioneer scene, the area that would one day become Transylvania County.
The organizers and sponsors of Transylvania Heritage Day have voted unanimously to focus the celebration of our local history and heritage on those founding years from circa 1790 to 1861. The event will pay a special tribute to the hardy pioneer families who arrived during those seven decades.
The free admission celebration returns with hundreds of family history exhibits presented by the 550 members of the Transylvania Genealogy Group, an expanded line-up of great mountain heritage entertainment, mountain crafters both demonstrating and selling their work, and delicious barbeque served by the American Legion.
Historical interpreters and demonstrators will help to bring the past of the county to life. An extensive selection of published historical and genealogical works will be available, including a large selection by Highland Books in Brevard, plus a quilt and rare book raffle to help fund the celebration. There will be drawings for a huge selection of very nice door prizes.
The very popular Gillespie rifle exhibit returns this year outdoors in the tent area with a much larger presentation of the historic locally made guns and related artifacts, plus a working gun forge in operation, plus several historical demonstrators and interpreters.
The leading organizations and businesses joining hands as the organizers and sponsors of Heritage Day include the Transylvania Genealogy Group, the Transylvania Times, Transylvania County Historical Society, Gillespie Rifle Works, National Allison-Allanson Family Association, Jim Bob Tinsley Museum and Transylvania Heritage Center, the Transylvania Heritage Coalition, Transylvania Joint Historic Preservation Commission, Cradle of Forestry in America Interpretive Association, Sandy’s Scrap Book Corner, and Hardin’s Gardens Greenhouses and Florist. In addition to the sponsors, numerous county organizations and institutions will participate.
Transylvania Heritage Day is being organized and presented by a committee formed from the sponsor organizations, chaired by Michael Allison, the Transylvania Genealogy Group, with co-chair Stella Trapp, the Transylvania Times.
An exciting line-up of entertainers for 2006 has been carefully selected to help interpret and bring the past of the county to life. All three main racial and cultural groups that made up the founding population of the western mountain counties — the native Cherokee, white European settlers, and African slaves — will be represented in the entertainment lineup.
Headliner entertainers for Heritage Day 2006 are the very talented members of the McDowell Family Band, widely known as one of the leading traditional musical groups in the mountain region. Standing out among the five member family band is Emily McDowell, 14 year old winner of the North Carolina State Fiddle Championship.
Brevard’s Bethel A Baptist Church gospel choir will perform the cherished musical traditions of the county’s black community. The Pisgah Pilgrims will perform very traditional mountain style bluegrass and gospel, and Cool Creek Ramblers will be adding their touch of regional music through classic American country.
The Ani-Kuwih Cherokee Indian Dancers, Cherokee children from elementary age through high school, will perform the traditional dances of our native people, accompanied by a chanter who will “sing the dance.” Tribal cultural expert Myrtle Driver will interpret the dances.
Southern Mountain Fire Cloggers, western North Carolina’s leading folk dance troop will return for their second Heritage Day show with lightning fast, high energy mountain dance that thrilled the crowd in 2005.
Several popular historical interpreters and demonstrators will help bring the past of the county to life, including well known folk figure Selena Robinson, 88, who will demonstrate old-time lye soap making over a fire in the outdoor area, while meeting and talking to the crowd about life in the county in days gone by.
Master moonshiner Popcorn Sutton, featured in several documentary films, will attend with his old Model A truck that he regularly drives with his moonshine still bolted down on back. Popcorn will park his truck in the outdoor tent area and will be meeting the crowd all day, talking mountain moonshining in days gone by.
Beloved 95 year old local folk figure Vera Jones Stinson, author of the new book “Stumbling Blocks were Building Blocks in Appalachia,” will have a book signing that day, and spend time meet and greeting the heritage Day crowd.
Traditional tombstone carver David Gillespie will be at work on one of his beautiful hand-carved stones beside his wife who will be demonstrating traditional spinning on magnificent old spinning wheel.
Fourteen traditional mountain handcrafters will be both demonstrating and selling their work in the outdoor tent area.
Delicious mountain style barbeque plates will be served from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. by the American Legion in their large dining room adjoining the huge main hall.
Heritage entertainment takes the stage at noon and continues throughout the afternoon, providing a rich taste of the county’s past through songs and dances of our mountain people.
In late afternoon, the Transylvania Genealogy Group will present the 2006 Transylvania Heritage Award, honoring a special individual who has contributed greatly to both understanding and preserving the past of the county.
The largest selection ever of both regional and local historical and genealogical books will be assembled and for sale at various locations around the festival. Numerous published authors are participating.
The community will have a full schedule of other events that week leading up to and complimenting Heritage Day. The Transylvania County Historical Society will observe National Historic Preservation week with several activities, including walking tours of downtown Brevard and the annual Historic Preservation Banquet. The society will also host a special antique gun program at the Allison-Deaver House, presented by Dennis Glazener, Gillespie Rifle Works, published expert on the Gillespie rifles, and the Transylvania Genealogy Group. The public will be invited to bring in their antique guns to have them examined and assessed.
The Transylvania County Cemetery Commission will hold a historic cemetery clean-up, and the Historic Preservation Commission will hold a historic photo ID contest in the Transylvania Times. The Jim Bob Tinsley Museum will also have activities during the week that are not yet announced.
All county families, institutions and organizations, and churches are invited to participate at Transylvania Heritage Day with historical displays. For more information, please contact the Transylvania Genealogy Group through assistant group manager Mary Daniel Galyon, Brevard, at (828) 884-5411, or Heritage Day chairman Michael Allison by e-mail at dma12@bellsouth.net .
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