ROCKINGHAM – Dr. Tom Stevenson, president of the Richmond County Historical Society, opened the March meeting of the society this past Monday night at Rockingham City Hall.
The society meets at 7 p.m. in City Hall every third Monday night on most months. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.
Each month the society has a different speaker who is well versed in state and local history.
Mrs. Lynn Salsi, a resident of Greensboro, was our speaker for the month of March. Mrs. Salsi is the author of ten books of history, folklore and historical fiction. Her awards include American Library Association Notable Book Award, the Willie Parker Peace History Book Award, and the Paul Green Multi-Media Award. She was also chosen N.C. 2001 Historian of the Year. She also writes plays for children and teaches classes at community colleges.
Mrs. Salis said, “I enjoy talking about history, folklore and of course stories; for without stories we have no history.”
Mrs. Salis said, “I was raised in a southern family who had a long line of talkers and storytellers.”
At the meeting Mrs. Salis talked on how our state was first settled and how things such as religion played a big part in where our ancestors settled. How land speculation and the riches of natural resources were some of the main goals of European countries while the new world was being settled.
“Our coastal region was settled first and then folks started moving west toward the Piedmont and on to the mountains”, she said. She talked about how the Quakers and Moravians who settled in the Piedmont were very skilled people who first started building grist mills to support themselves and the local economy. Also to help support our state to thrive were timber, navel stores, furniture and of course the farming and fisheries business.
Mrs. Salis explained how in the 1830 and 40’s Governor Morehead pushed for train transportation service from the N.C. coast to the mountains. He was met with opposition such as folks saying, It would be easier to get a train on the moon than to build R.R. tracts across our state.” An interesting fact about trains back then was that their top speed was only fifteen M.P.H.
At the end of the meeting, Mrs. Salis talked about her books she had written and how with a lot of help from other people she was able to accomplish this. Some of her favorite books she brought were about famed storyteller, Ray Hicks, “the Master Storyteller” from Banner Elk, N.C.
Dr. Stevenson closed out the meeting by thanking Mr. and Mrs. Salis for coming and asked folks to stop-by and view Mrs. Salis’s book display. Dr. Stevenson final remark was, “How do we as a society pass on history to future generations?”
The Richmond Co. Historical Society is always looking for new members and guests who share a common interest in local history and genealogy. Our next meeting will be Mon. night Apr. 16th. at Rockingham City Hall.
