Newsletter

FCHA’s top priority is guaranteeing the safety of each member of our community, our audiences, our committed docent team, and their families. As a public institution, we also are mindful of our responsibilities of best public health practices.

The past year has been one of the most challenging of our lifetime, having lost family and friends, and perhaps, even our businesses to COVID-19. On behalf of FCHA, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for your continued membership and support during this devastating pandemic. I am in awe of the number of membership renewals we have received. We appreciate each and every one of you!

What a difference a year makes. We’d all love to go back to 2019 when everyone was blissfully unaware of Covid-19 and where such things as social distancing, zoom meetings and murder hornets were foreign to us. Most importantly, we yearn to have our loved ones back who lost their lives to the horrific virus. Sadly, we report the passing of several who have contributed greatly to our organization. J. D. and Iris Baumgardner, Libby Milton and Robert Long. They were all vibrant volunteers in our community for many years and will truly be missed. We express our sincere condolences to their families.

As many of you know, FCHA was compliant with Governor Abbott’s orders to close our museums at the end of March due to the COVID-19 coronavirus. So far as I know, that is the first time in the history of our organization this has happened. Our museums will remain closed through the end of May, and FCHA board will reassess our situation at that time and make a decision on re-opening and having meetings going forward. Until further notice, office hours at the Parchman House Visitor’s Center are 8 a.m. until 12 noon, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

To visit a prairie today is to walk on hallowed ground, a kind of Holy Grail for those who yearn to revisit the land as it looked before it was remade and reformed by the rushing onslaught of settlement.

Jim Gatewood is a Dallas history professor at Richland College. The bestselling author has published over 90 books and manuscripts with over 20 books in print. Join us for good food and fellowship and an interesting program. Bring friends and family. Dr. Gatewood will have the Bonnie & Clyde book available for sale after the program - $20.00

Robert Sterling Long, Curator for the Franklin County Historical Association’s Art Collection, will provide information about the works and artists in the FCHA Collection at the Monday, November 4, 2019 regular meeting, to be held at the Cotton Belt Depot Museum.

Winner of four national teaching awards, Dr. Paul Benson is a long-time Professor of Humanities at Mountain View College in Dallas, Texas and Adjunct Professor at Dallas Baptist University. From his beginning in 1965 as a teacher in the Freedom Schools of rural Alabama run by Tuskegee Institute to his appointment as Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Institute Slavery and the Constitution at the Library of Congress in 2018, Paul Benson has dedicated his career to enriching the lives of others through education.

Join us at the Hagansport Community Center on July 1 at 6 p.m. for a special program to be provided by Preston Ware of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Mr. Ware will share the history and importance of music and musical instruments in the early, mid, and late 1800’s. The demonstration will include a bit of historical background and performing examples from instruments such as rhythm bones, jaw harp, jaw bone, French harp, 1820’s fiddle, cigar box fiddle, fretless banjos, bowl back mandolin and early guitar. This will be a fun and interesting program!

Due to scheduling conflicts with our featured speaker, the May 6th meeting is being moved to Thursday, May 9th, at 6 p.m., at the Cultural Arts Center. A catered, barbecue dinner will be provided. The program for the evening will be FCHA’s annual Civil War Journal Banquet.