Tuesday, June 6, 2023
No Result
View All Result
SUBSCRIBE
The Chimney Rock Chronicle
58 °f
Broadway
59 ° Wed
63 ° Thu
61 ° Fri
64 ° Sat
64 ° Sun
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Pickup Locations
  • Columns
    • All
    • Book Notes
    • Eating Well in the Real World
    • Faith
    • Fishing with Mike
    • From the Potting Shed
    • Fulks Run Follies
    • Gobbler Sports
    • Headlines from Plains Museum
    • Hiking With Ray
    • Local Business
    • Local Legends
    • Musings from the Woodpile
    • Personal & Professional Development
    • Randy's Ramblings
    • Reflections from a Fuller Life
    • Sarah's Recipes
    • The Gospel Vault
    • The View From Here
    • The Wandering Wilkins
    Photograph of Wes Dove

    Investing in Change

    The Wandering Wilkins

    The Wandering Wilkins

    The View From Here

    The View From Here

    Randy image

    Randy’s Ramblings

    Hiking with Ray

    Hiking with Ray

    Plants with history

    Plants with history

    Bass Fishing with Mike – December 2021

    Fishing with Mike

    Understanding the Holy Spirit – Part 4

    The Importance of Fellowship

    john coffman in alaska

    Our 11,635 mi camping trip to Arctic

    WLTK Logo

    Gospel Vault

    Spiritual Fitness Is Crucial

    The Proof Is In The Doing

    Photograph of Ronnie Fulk

    Fulks Run Follies

    From the Potting Shed

    From the Potting Shed

    chicken scratch bakery

    Home Baked Goodness!

    Crunch Time

    Crunch Time

    Trending Tags

    • Entertainment & Events
    • History
      • All
      • Bev's Historic Notes
      Plants with history

      Plants with history

      Paul Saunders, Singers Glen’s Hero of WWII

      Paul Saunders, Singers Glen’s Hero of WWII

      Cullers Run School in Hardy County, West Virginia

      Cullers Run School in Hardy County, West Virginia

      The Chimney Rock VFW Celebrates 75 Years of Service

      The Chimney Rock VFW Celebrates 75 Years of Service

      HEADLINES From Plains District Memorial Museum

      Highlights from the Plains District Memorial Museum

      Bad Roads

      Revolutionary War Service

      Mattress Shopping

      Retta’s Column

      HEADLINES From Plains District Memorial Museum

      Headlines from PLAINS DISTRICT MEMORIAL MUSEUM

      The Miller Family of the Genoa Area

      The Miller Family of the Genoa Area

    • Our Sponsors
      • Advertising
    • Home
      • About Us
      • Pickup Locations
    • Columns
      • All
      • Book Notes
      • Eating Well in the Real World
      • Faith
      • Fishing with Mike
      • From the Potting Shed
      • Fulks Run Follies
      • Gobbler Sports
      • Headlines from Plains Museum
      • Hiking With Ray
      • Local Business
      • Local Legends
      • Musings from the Woodpile
      • Personal & Professional Development
      • Randy's Ramblings
      • Reflections from a Fuller Life
      • Sarah's Recipes
      • The Gospel Vault
      • The View From Here
      • The Wandering Wilkins
      Photograph of Wes Dove

      Investing in Change

      The Wandering Wilkins

      The Wandering Wilkins

      The View From Here

      The View From Here

      Randy image

      Randy’s Ramblings

      Hiking with Ray

      Hiking with Ray

      Plants with history

      Plants with history

      Bass Fishing with Mike – December 2021

      Fishing with Mike

      Understanding the Holy Spirit – Part 4

      The Importance of Fellowship

      john coffman in alaska

      Our 11,635 mi camping trip to Arctic

      WLTK Logo

      Gospel Vault

      Spiritual Fitness Is Crucial

      The Proof Is In The Doing

      Photograph of Ronnie Fulk

      Fulks Run Follies

      From the Potting Shed

      From the Potting Shed

      chicken scratch bakery

      Home Baked Goodness!

      Crunch Time

      Crunch Time

      Trending Tags

      • Entertainment & Events
      • History
        • All
        • Bev's Historic Notes
        Plants with history

        Plants with history

        Paul Saunders, Singers Glen’s Hero of WWII

        Paul Saunders, Singers Glen’s Hero of WWII

        Cullers Run School in Hardy County, West Virginia

        Cullers Run School in Hardy County, West Virginia

        The Chimney Rock VFW Celebrates 75 Years of Service

        The Chimney Rock VFW Celebrates 75 Years of Service

        HEADLINES From Plains District Memorial Museum

        Highlights from the Plains District Memorial Museum

        Bad Roads

        Revolutionary War Service

        Mattress Shopping

        Retta’s Column

        HEADLINES From Plains District Memorial Museum

        Headlines from PLAINS DISTRICT MEMORIAL MUSEUM

        The Miller Family of the Genoa Area

        The Miller Family of the Genoa Area

      • Our Sponsors
        • Advertising
      No Result
      View All Result
      The Chimney Rock Chronicle
      Subscribe
      Thank you to our Sponsors! Thank you to our Sponsors! Thank you to our Sponsors!
      Home History

      Brocks Gap Heritage Day, May 7, 2022

      Pat Ritchie by Pat Ritchie
      April 6, 2022
      in Columnists, Pat Turner Ritchie
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

      After a two-year pause, the 30th annual Brocks Gap Heritage Day will be Saturday, May 7, 2022, at Broadway High School, Broadway, VA, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Over 150 posters from our vintage photograph collection feature families, churches, communities, schools, and other topics. Researchers can use my personal library of family, local and regional histories. Other genealogists and local historians will be there to share their material and gather new information. This is a free event open to the public. Donations are welcome to purchase memorial stones for family cemeteries. New books will be available for purchase.

      Three programs this year are:

      11:00 “Harrison May, Unsung WWII Hero from Fulks Run,” by Joe T. May

      12:30 “George May: from Ireland to Brocks Gap—How DNA and new research led to a revised picture of George May and his family” by Diane Langston

      2:00 “The Forgotten People of Rockingham County” by Rev. William Zirk

      **The school’s safety rules will be in effect.**

      For more than ten years, Joe T. May and his sisters Lois May Rhodes and Phoebe May Orebaugh have researched the military service of local men during World War II, particularly those killed in action. This year’s program focuses on the experiences of Harrison May from Criders, who landed on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Joe T. May is a graduate of Broadway High School and Virginia Tech and founder of EIT, a Sterling-based electronics manufacturer. He holds over twenty patents in the fields of electrical and electronic engineering. May is also an avid aviator, holding licenses in both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. From 1994 through 2014 he served in the House of Delegates representing the 33rd District.

      Photograph of Christine R. Bear Headstone at Hulvey Cemetery
      Hulvey cemetery stone on Little Dry River Road, purchased in 2021 through Heritage Day donations.

      For generations, researchers thought that early Brocks Gap settler George May was a Hessian soldier from Germany, fighting with the British during the American Revolutionary War. Heritage Day’s speaker Diane Langston used DNA results and other research methods to discover new information on George May and proved that he was from Ireland, not Germany. Langston is a member of the DAR, the Virginia Genealogical Society, and the Genealogical Research Institute of Virginia. She has a B.S. degree from JMU in Library Science and Educational Media with a minor in History and a M.S. degree as a Reading Specialist from Longwood University. She was a school librarian for 36 years before retiring in 2019.

      A Rockingham County native, Rev. William L. “Bill” Zirk will speak about the history of the Alms House, commonly known as the poor house, of Rockingham County. He is uniquely qualified for this topic, since his grandfather William A. Zirk, was superintendent of the Alms House from 1945 until his sudden death in November of 1952, and his father, Berlin M. Zirk, Sr., was superintendent from 1952 until January 1956, when his health caused him to retire. Thus, Bill literally grew up in the Alms House.  Bill graduated from Turner Ashby High School and from Bridgewater College. He taught middle school for thirty years and retired in 1993. An ordained minister, he served as a Church of the Brethren pastor in several small churches in Rockingham and Shenandoah Counties from 1961 until 2005. He founded the Shenandoah County Credit Union and served as president of the Board of Directors for twenty-three years.

      Making their 30th appearance at Heritage Day, Rocktown History (Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society) will have local history books for sale on a broad range of topics. This year representatives from Plains District Museum will be on hand to share information about their activities.

      Heritage Day tombstone donations have helped preserve twelve Brocks Gap family cemeteries. Many graves in these small plots had no tombstones, only simple rock markers and were in danger of being destroyed. In the last 30 years, we recorded locations of these forgotten cemeteries and researched names and dates of those buried in them. Last year, Joe Adolph began recording the GPS locations so they can be mapped precisely. This year we plan stones for the Roadcap (Fulks Run), Shaver (Criders), and Fink-Moyer (Bergton) cemeteries. Costs are about $900 per stone. Donations will be accepted at Heritage Day.

      Since 2020, I completed two new books: Portraits of the Past: Bergton and Criders Communities, 1903, a 127-page book with family photos by traveling photographer J. M. Hill of Bridgewater, and African Americans in Brocks Gap, Rockingham County, Virginia, a history of enslaved and free African Americans in the Gap. Both will be available for sale along with Lewis Yankey’s books and others.

      Photograph of people on Heritage Day.

      Photograph of people looking at posters of old photos on Heritage Day.
      Posters of old photos are always popular at Heritage Day.

      Pat Turner Ritchie’s families have lived in the Brocks Gap area for about 250 years. She has collected stories and researched the area since she was a teen.

      Pat Ritchie

      Pat Ritchie

      Pat Turner Ritchie’s families have lived in the Brocks Gap area for about 250 years. She has collected stories and researched the area since she was a teen.

      Next Post
      Photograph of Bill Miller in the present day

      Bill Miller Turns 100

      Popular Articles

      • Eldon Layman: Retired Educator and Book Creator

        Eldon Layman: Retired Educator and Book Creator

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Morel Hunting Season Is Here!

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • STUDIO 259

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Hottinger Family

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Making Memories Without Spending Lots of Money

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • The Lantz Family

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Handy with Randy

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Home Baked Goodness!

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Fulks Run Follies

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Valley Avon Business Center, LLC

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • About Us
      • Advertising
      • Contact
      • Pick Up Locations

      © 2023 The Chimney Rock Chronicle - Website & E-Commerce by Bare Web Design, Broadway Va.

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • Columns
      • History
      • Sports
        • Thank you to our Sponsors!
        • Advertising

      © 2023 The Chimney Rock Chronicle - Website & E-Commerce by Bare Web Design, Broadway Va.