PACA

Hear little-known and never-heard-before stories about the interplay of gold mining, kinship, religious networks, and education in North Georgia’s history at Reinhardt University’s second annual history symposium March 22 & 23.

All activities are in the Bannister Glasshouse in the Hasty Student Life Center, unless otherwise noted. For more information and to register click:

http://www.reinhardt.edu/Events/2013/history-symposium-2013-gold-religion-education.html .

Friday, March 22

• 3:30 p.m. – “Waleska as Epicenter: Gold-seeking Methodists & the Development of Emory, Reinhardt & Young Harris Colleges” (featured address by Dr. Kenneth Wheeler)
• 5 p.m. – Optional dinner in the nearby Gordy Center for $6.50 per person
• 7 p.m. – “Echoes of Cherokee County”, dramatic readings from selected primary historical documents (produced by Dr. Kevin Crawford, Assistant Professor of English and Theatre, Reinhardt University).

Saturday, March 23

• 8:30 a.m. – Continental Breakfast
• 9 a.m. – “Emancipation & Education in ‘Them Thar Hills’: Schools & North Georgia After the Civil War” (featured address by Dr. Jennifer Lund Smith)
• 10 a.m. – “Understanding the Intertwinings” Panelists Dr. Jonathan Atkins, Berry College; Dr. Tene Harris Davis, Georgia State University; and Dr. Kenneth H. Wheeler, Reinhardt University will share remarks & answer audience questions.

At the Marble Valley Historical Society meeting Sunday, March 17, Funk Heritage Center Director Dr. Joseph Kitchens will give an update on Native American artifacts found during the construction of Canton’s Walmart.

The meeting is scheduled for 3:00 pm in the large meeting room at the Pickens County Library.

Contractors halted construction on the store in 1994 when workers found items that looked like Native American artifacts. The Army Corps of Engineers funded a scientific excavation that was done by Archaeologist Paul Webb’s Atlanta-based firm.

When Webb relocated to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, he took the artifacts with him and has been studying them for the last 18 years. Dr. Kitchens will describe the artifacts and detail the successful effort to return the items to Georgia.

Come together to share ideas and plans for the arts and culture in Pickens

If you care about arts, culture, history, and the natural heritage of Pickens County – you are invited meet and talk with others in the community. And if you are part of a group or business that is active in arts and culture, come and tell everyone about what you’ve done and what you’re working on!

The annual membership meeting of the Pickens Arts and Cultural Alliance (PACA), will be Thursday Feb. 21 at 5:30 pm in the Pickens Room of the County Administration Building, 1266 E. Church Street. You don’t need to be a member to attend the meeting.

PACA needs to hear from you so that we can make plans that best serve everyone. We’ll start with a half-hour informal reception just to network, followed by sharing of accomplishments and goals from community groups. You’ll hear about PACA’s plans to help everyone work together on common goals. PACA members will elect our new Board Members.

PACA encourages you to take the opportunity for exchange of ideas and information   Please join us at this meeting!

For more information, email us at PACAGeorgia@gmail.com.

Driving Miss Daisy, from Tater Patch Players Driving Miss Daisy

By Pat Jewell, Tater Patch Players

What does it take to become Miss Daisy? Does a resemblance to Jessica Tandy help? In the case of Ginger Rosen, the resemblance was a foot in the door, but her incredible acting ability was the real reason for her success with the part.

Rosen was born and raised in Chicago. She studied opera as a school girl. Later she married and moved to Gwinnett County where she raised four children.  Rosen went back to her music and decided to audition for a play. Her first part was Sister Robert Ann in Nunsense with the County Seat Players in Lawrenceville. Rosen hired an agent, took acting lessons and began singing again. Her credits include lead vocalist in Dangerous Liaisons and an extra part in Remember the Titans.

Rosen has played Miss Daisy five times. The beginning of her interest in the part was when her agent called and asked if she thought she looked like Jessica Tandy. Rosen did not see the resemblance but did take the gig. She worked a trade show in Atlanta for one day. All she had to do was be in character from the time she got out of her car until she got back in to go home.  It was a big success for her.  “People actually came up to me and asked where Hoke was,”  says Rosen. “Since Hoke was not cast for this show, I simply told them that Hoke was in the car waiting on me!” Many of the other trade fair workers watched Rosen throughout the day and thought she was Tandy.

Shortly after this experience, Rosen saw that the show was to be staged in Marietta. She auditioned and got the part. While doing the Marietta show, someone from the Canton Theater saw Rosen and asked her to audition for their production of the same show. “Opening night of the Canton show was spectacular,” says Rosen. “We approached the theater in one of the cars that was used in the movie. I was handed a mink stole to wear. Of course, Hoke drove. When we pulled up there were people dressed in formal theater wear, including minks.  There were lights and photographers. We felt like real stars!”     Come and join Ginger and the other actors for a touching and fun show – no minks required! Driving Miss Daisy will be staged at the Tater Patch Players Theater at 95 Philadelphia Lane in Jasper. Tickets are $15 adult and $14 seniors and students. Show dates are Feb.  8, 9, 15, 16, 22 and 23 at 7:30 and Feb. 10 and 17 at 2. For tickets see www.taterpatchplayers.org or call the theater at 706-253-2800.

Old friends, from Tater Patch Players Driving Miss Daisy, actors Ginger Rosen and Darrell Grant

The Riverside Chamber Players, sponsored by Jasper Muse, are bringing their exuberant style back to Jasper along with two new works.

The Monday, February 4 concert starts at 7 pm at New Lebanon Presbyterian Church, 389 Bent Tree Drive, Jasper.

For more details, see the web page.

North Georgia farmers never stop working.

Winter still has room for root vegetables, and that freshness is especially nice when it’s local.  Take it from Jamie and Kristen Rosenthal:

“At Wolfscratch Farm, we grow at least a little of everything and a lot of root veggies — everything from carrots and radishes to beets and parsnips and greens for salads or braising. This is our favorite time of year, with the richness of cool-weather crops coupled with a reprieve from the hot-weather growing season.”

Read more – including recipes – in Smoke Signals: Early winter veggies in the South.

Civil War Historian Robert Jones will share his research into critical Civil War moments during a presentation Sunday, October 28 to the Marble Valley Historical Society. Anyone with an interest in the Civil War is invited to participate in the meeting at 3:00 p.m at the Pickens County library.

Historians began last year to commemorate the Civil War’s 150^th anniversary. Anniversary activities will continue each year through 2015 to coincide with the dates of the 1861–1865 conflict.

Jones, president of the Kennesaw Historical Society, will talk about the ten most critical moments of the Civil War. He’ll cover moments and decisions which either radically changed the course of the war, or had the possibility of changing the war, including Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Antietam, Chickamauga, Sherman’s march to the sea, and the fall of Vicksburg.

The author of 16 Civil War books, Jones is programs and education chair for the Kennesaw Museum Foundation, and is on the advisory board for the Civil War Round Table of Cobb County. He also plays and sings with Historical Echoes, a local band that performs Civil War/Southern Heritage music.

One of the more interesting stories in Pickens County history describes how a group of residents flew the union flag briefly at the county courthouse near the beginning of the Civil War. It turns out others in the area were opposed to the war.

William Clayton Fain, a Fannin County lawyer and state representative, was an outspoken supporter of the Union. He refused to sign Georgia’s Ordinance of Secession and he helped enlist soldiers for the Union forces.

On Thursday, October 11, 2012 the Georgia Historical Society, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and the Georgia Battlefields Association will dedicate a historical marker for Mr. Fain.

The dedication begins at 1:30 p.m. in Downtown City Park in Blue Ridge. David Ralston, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives is the keynote speaker.

The marker reads as follows.

William Clayton Fain: Georgia Unionist

One of the leading Unionists in the state during the Civil War, William Clayton Fain was born in Georgia in 1825. A Fannin County lawyer and state representative, he served in the 1861 Secession Convention, where he opposed Georgia leaving the United States and refused to sign the Ordinance of Secession. During the Civil War, Fain was an outspoken supporter of the United States and an anti-Confederate leader among the sizeable number of Unionists in Fannin and adjoining counties. In 1864, the U.S. Army authorized him to raise recruits, which he conducted into Federal lines. Fain was captured and killed by Confederates near Ducktown, Tennessee, on April 6, 1864. He was one of many Southerners who opposed the Confederacy, including 400,000 – primarily from the Upper South – who enlisted in the U.S. armed forces.  Eected for the Civil War 150 commemoration by the Georgia Historical Society, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and the Georgia Battlefields Association.

In partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, this event is part of a statewide commemoration of the Civil War 150 anniversary. The Georgia Historical Society is conducting a program across the state to unveil new and recently replaced historical markers that explore the stories of Georgia’s Civil War history as lived and experienced by all of its people during those tumultuous and transformative years. For more information on the Civil War 150 marker project, please contact the Georgia Historical Society at http://www.georgiahistory.com.