The Grange Courts A Doctor

Windsor’s Crossroads is a community in the southwest corner of Yadkin county, NC and you’ll be forgiven if you haven’t heard if it. It’s a small, rural area centered on the meeting of Buck Shoals Road, Hunting Creek Church Road, and Windsor Road.It doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry or any sort of written history asContinue reading “The Grange Courts A Doctor”

Photo of the Day +

Today’s photo of the day is really several. On a quick trip through the county I made a stop at Hunting Creek Friend’s Meeting in Hamptonville, a small church that I’ve found some old pictures of researching another story.It’s a fascinating little church with an interesting style to it’s steeple that I haven’t seen inContinue reading “Photo of the Day +”

The Money Place: Reading The Landscape

It’s not often you have the kind of unfettered access to a location like I have had with the Money Place, and as a result, I have tried various means to really understand the property and its story. This includes standard genealogical research, property records, aerial photos, and even metal detecting.Today though I want toContinue reading “The Money Place: Reading The Landscape”

Sarah Anderson Heinzerling: Statesville’s Forgotten Poetess

Sometimes the assault of time against the collective memory of a place can obscure names and stories that were once meaningful to it. Much of what I do in researching local events and people is the attempt to rediscover these lost entities and tell their story as best I can with what remains. This storyContinue reading “Sarah Anderson Heinzerling: Statesville’s Forgotten Poetess”

The Life of Blum Hiliary Vestal

In preparation for two articles I’m currently working on, I’m uploading a small book about a man named Blum Hiliary Vestal, who will figure prominently in one and to some degree in the other. B.H. Vestal was a prolific evangelist who began his career in the early 1900’s after a miraculous conversion. He travelled inContinue reading “The Life of Blum Hiliary Vestal”

The Bugle Boy Who Was Buried Twice

Thomas Boyd Speaks was born in Union Grove, NC in 1901 to John Peter (J.P.) Speaks and Gillie Lutissen Templeton. Thomas’ father John was a local farmer who lived just off NC-901 and had been in the community his whole life. With a sizeable property of almost 100 acres, he was probably able to keepContinue reading “The Bugle Boy Who Was Buried Twice”

September, 1975 in Statesville. Murders, rape, and a John Doe.

Humans seemed naturally wired to look for patterns in life. Sometimes coincidences have meaning and sometimes they are statistical improbabilities. Either way, the mind naturally wants to create order from chaos, and the more we do that, the more likely we are to refute the randomness of events that share the same space and timeContinue reading “September, 1975 in Statesville. Murders, rape, and a John Doe.”