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Showing posts from December 15, 2019

Descendants of Tig and Creasy Willis

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Family reunions, celebrations, and revivals bring African-American families together By REV. ED ANDERSON LTC (Ret) US Army ORIGINAL ARTICLE  Descendants of Creasy and Tig Willis are invited to join in the reunion this summer. From mid January until the end of the February of each year is usually a special time of honoring the elders, ancestors, and high achievers in the African American community throughout this county, state, and nation. This period usually begins with the celebration of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all that was achieved during the modern Civil Rights Movement. It goes on with many celebrations of achievement throughout African American History month. Among the purposes for this time of celebration and honoring is to ensure that we do not forget the achievements that have been realized over the years. Further, the purpose is to especially inspire the young people to contribute to the greater good of their family and the human race. More

Nancy Cohen Gumby

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2nd cousin of husband of 1st cousin 1x removed of stepmother & relative of mother When Nancy Lee Cohen was born in 1934 in Georgia, her father, Mitchell, was 46, and her mother, Estelle, was 26. She had one sister. She died on November 11, 2019, in her hometown at the age of 85. Notes: am saddened to announce the passing of our dear Honorary Board Member Nancy Cohen-Gunby on Monday, November 11, 2019. She was my inspiration for wanting to rehabilitate the 1910 Cherry Grove schoolhouse! At one time, she taught there. Not appointing her an honorary board member was not an option! But more importantly, forty plus years ago, when I first starting digging into the attics and cellars of our family history, Cousin Nancy was one of the FEW sources that I could go to: she possessed the depth of knowledge, facility of recall, and in the true Southern Tradition a penchant for storytelling. But she also exemplified another tradition; long before the invention of the inter

Cherry Grove Schoolhouse approved for nomination to National Register

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Congratulations are in order for the Cherry Grove Baptist Church and its historic, pre-integration, oner oom schoolhouse. Read the Article Located Here. This one-room schoolhouse in Danburg will be officially nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Friends of Cherry Grove Schoolhouse

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Information Obtained and can be found at the original site here. The Friends of Cherry Grove Schoolhouse Schoolhouse History The Cherry Grove Schoolhouse is a rare surviving example of an early 20th century rural African American school building in Georgia. The building was constructed circa 1910 on the grounds of the Cherry Grove Baptist Church (founded 1875) as a part of the 175th school district for the rural farming children of Cohentown and Sandtown. It is a one-room wood-frame schoolhouse of approximately 465 square feet. It has a timber frame wooden structure covered in clapboard supported by stacked stone piers. The schoolhouse is located on the four acre campus of the Cherry Grove Baptist Church at 1878 Danburg Road (Route 44 North) surrounded by an unincorporated rural farming community, most notably, Cohentown (historical). It is one of 15 extant pre-Rosenwald African-American schoolhouses built on church grounds within the state of Georgia. The building was

Cousins, Community, and SAR Reunited for the First Time November 20, 2019

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Cousins, Community, and SAR Reunited for the First Time November 20, 2019 Cousins - Ed Anderson, Paul Anderson, Roy Smith, Barrett Hanson, and Wayne Dudley (l-r). Reposted Article Original Article    The NewsReporter Barrett Hanson was the featured speaker of the November 12, 2017 meeting of the Washington-Wilkes Historical Foundation. Barrett is a very impressive man in many regards, successful, articulate, and extremely civic-minded. He has been the prime mover, assisted by Mrs. Nancy Cohen Gunby, in preserving the memory of Cohentown and Cherry Grove School as seminal in the historic achievements of an important and, indeed, unique African-American community which thrived in Wilkes County from the Reconstruction era through the first decades of the Twentieth Century. At that time the post-World War I diaspora saw numerous citizens, both black and white, seek economic opportunity in burgeoning northern manufacturing centers such as Detroit. As a result, Cohentown and its scho