Posted By Jim on January 11, 2010

The newly opened Museum of Ashe County History in Jefferson is now working on an HO-scale model of the Virginia Creeper. West Jefferson and Todd will be featured in this project and photographs are now being sought of Todd as it was during the railroad era in Todd. The Virginia-Carolina ran to Todd from 1915 to 1933 and the model aims to accurately illustrate Todd as it was in 1925.

The Todd Community Preservation Organization has a growing collection of photographs, but additional photographs are sought to help accurately build this model. If you have any photographs of Todd during this era, or know someone who does, please let us know.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Jim on January 8, 2010

In case you’ve missed it, the South Fork of the New River has frozen over for more than two miles along Railroad Grade Road. Due to the cold and high water levels, the ice has piled up and pushed ice over the Castle Ford bridge at Todd Island Park. A photo taken by Todd’s own professional photog Lynn Townsend was featured at raysweather.com. WSOC-TV in Charlotte broadcast a short piece on the frozen river Thursday. You can view the video here.

If you go check it out, please don’t walk on the river and be careful getting close to the river’s edge. There is still a strong current under the ice which can pull you under to an icy and watery grave! Even on the banks, the water is dammed up and pushed the water out of its banks in places, so you can end up slogging in ice water if you’re not careful!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Jim on November 17, 2009

Todd Ruritan Club will hold the annual community tree lighting on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 5:30 p.m. in Walter and Annie Cook Memorial Park. Hot apple cider will be served. Those who attend are also encouraged to join in holiday caroling.

For a $5 contribution you can sponsor a light on the tree. All proceeds go to the Ruby A. Trivette Scholarship Fund. Each year, the fund provides a $1,000 scholarship for at least one student from the Todd community. You can download a contribution form here.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Jim on October 14, 2009

Category: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By BethM on September 6, 2009

Don’t miss the 4th Elkland International Puppet Festival on September 19

This family-fun event, organized and hosted by Elkland Art Center, features world-class puppetry for all ages. Featuring Madison J. Cripps, Hobey Ford, and Keith Shubert, along with the world-famous Elkland Art Center puppet wranglers. In the Todd Mercantile Gallery and the old Bank of Todd building next door. Puppet shows from 1 to 4 p.m.,  puppet jam and EAC’s “The Runaway” at 7:00 p.m. Admission, $5 for adults, $2 for children under 12. Details at 336-877-5016.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Jim on September 1, 2009

When the 2009 Todd Summer Music Series was being scheduled, series organizers contacted Todd’s good friends, Wayne Henderson and Helen White, to invite them back to Todd once again. Henderson and White spent several weeks this summer touring Europe, making an appearance during the regular six-week series impractical. Thus, the special concert this Saturday, Sept. 5, was born.
Henderson, a retired mail carrier from the rural crossroads of Rugby, Va., and his friend Helen White, have been coming to Todd for the better part of the last decade. Henderson, of course, is world renowned for his top-notch finger picking and guitar making, and White is responsible for starting the Junior Appalachian Musicians program which today enriches the lives of so many mountain area school students.
We hope you’ll join us on Saturday, Sept. 5 for their concert at Cook Park from 2 to 4 p.m. Admission to this special concert is $5. Children 12 and under admitted free. Proceeds help offset the costs of the free music program presented each summer in Todd. For more information, please call 336-877-5401 or email us at info@toddnc.org

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Jim on August 1, 2009

Since 2003, Doc and Richard Watson have been good neighbors and friends to the Ashe County community of Todd, just across the ridge from Deep Gap. Every August, they have played on the stage at Walter and Annie Cook Memorial Park in the middle of Todd’s historic district. Each year, thousands of fans and friends from near and far have filled the little park with their enthusiasm and love for one of our national treasures.

Like all of the preceding events, Doc Watson’s concert in Todd on Saturday, August 22, is a fundraiser for community projects and the James “Crow” Parsons Memorial Fund. As such, it will help to support the nonprofit Todd Community Preservation Organization in its efforts to sustain the community without destroying its unique character.

Each year, too, Doc’s Todd concert has showcased other local musicians, from Alternate Roots and Amantha Mill to Buck Haggard and Southeast Express, presenting a full afternoon of outstanding music in a beautiful rural setting. This year’s opening bands are Lost Ridge Band at 3 p.m. and Backstreet at 4 p.m.

The concert will again be dedicated to the memory of James Parsons, who was part of music in Todd from its very beginnings. Although James is now gone, the Memorial Fund is being built to finance future summer concerts at Cook Park. A pickle jar in the Todd Mercantile Bakery collects change and dollars for the fund, and the pickle jar is passed around during the Saturday afternoon concerts to help the memorial fund grow. TCPO, the nonprofit community organization, also seeks larger contributions to permanently endow the fund to provide dependable financing for the music series that James Parsons helped bring to Todd.

This year’s series is partially supported by a grant from the North Carolina Rural Center’s NC STEP program, of which Todd is a part along with West Jefferson. TCPO applied for the grant through HandMade in America as part of a High Country cluster of communities working together to revitalize and sustain their economies while preserving their cultural and historical roots. The series also received a grant from the Grassroots Arts Program of the NC Arts Council, a state agency, and a Community Arts Program grant from the Ashe County Arts Council.

Tickets to the concert are $15 or $17 for credit card purchases. Children under 12 are admitted free. Only 1,500 tickets are available, that number being the capacity of Cook Memorial Park in the middle of Todd’s historic district. In addition to ticket sales, sponsors have come forward, helping to underwrite some of the concert expense and leaving more for the memorial fund. Among this year’s sponsors are the Kevin and Susan McCarter Family and Nan Wyatt.

The logistics of having 1,500 people in Todd at one time are challenging but not impossible. Close-in parking is provided by the youth of South Fork Baptist Church, raising funds for a mission trip. Other parking is in a nearby field with free shuttle service. Attendees bring their own chairs or blankets and umbrellas in case of late-day showers. Snacks and drink are available at a tent in Cook Park, as well as from the nearby Todd General Store and Todd Mercantile Bakery. Well-behaved pets are allowed, but no alcohol.

The entire Todd summer music series, and especially Doc’s concert, is very much a community undertaking, involving many hours and days of volunteer work in addition to financial contributions and sponsorships. People are needed to set up tents, park cars, collect tickets, sell food and clean up afterwards. Anyone who can spare a couple of hours to help make the concert a success is invited to email info@toddnc.org or call 336-877-5401. Setup will be on Friday, August 21.

Tickets are available at Todd General Store, Todd Mercantile (taking credit card orders), and RiverGirl Fishing Co. in Todd; the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce in Boone; and Ashe Visitor’s Center and BlueMoon Guitars in West Jefferson. If any tickets are left by the 22nd, they will be available at the gate. For more information, call 336-877-5401.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Jim on July 13, 2009

Amantha Mill's Randy Paisley plays the dobro during Amantha Mill's concert at Cook Park this summer. Join us for Saturday, July 18th's concert featuring Laura Boosinger and Josh Goforth.

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By Jim on July 6, 2009

Every few days  someone comes to Todd asking about old graveyards and looking for an ancestor’s grave or a family cemetery. Unless they are looking for one of the well-established and active cemeteries, the search can be daunting.  Local residents try to point the family-tree seekers in the right direction when possible, and we’re trying to establish some sort of master list to help out. Many of the old family plots high up on the ridges have been neglected. Some of the graveyards with only fieldstones as markers have been lost entirely. Those old cemeteries hold secrets to much of the community’s history.

Final resting place of Oscar Payne (1879-1951) atop Second Knob overlooking the South Fork of the New River.

For instance, an old cemetery, unmarked on any county maps, is located on Second Knob, just a mile or so from downtown Todd. The old fence is fallen and the forest has retaken the plot of land where no one has been buried for more than 50 years. Only two graves are marked. One belongs to a man by the name of Oscar H. Payne.

Os, as he was known, was believed to have been born in a cabin on Second Knob to James H. Payne and Ella McGuire Payne on November 1, 1879. Os Payne enlisted in the U.S. Army at Mountain City, Tenn., on February 2, 1901 and served for six years and four days. He was in the 30th Infantry Regiment and saw action in the Philippines during the Philippine Insurrection that raged following the Spanish-American War.  “I saw’em piled nine high,” he’s remembered saying of his war experiences. After serving two three-year enlistments, Payne returned to Todd.  When he didn’t have any money for chewing tobacco, Ruby Trivette’s father, Marshall Trivette, wrote to Washington and was able to obtain for Payne a $6 per month pension. Those old enough to remember Payne recall that he could play a banjo and often wore a new suit of clothes to town. Ms. Trivette recalls that Os Payne had a pocketwatch which he treasured and would often ask anyone around for the time.  Inevitably, their timepiece was wrong — Os Payne kept time by his watch alone. Ms. Trivette recalls that once when Os Payne asked her the time, he told her she was three minutes slow. “What difference does that make,” she asked. “Three minutes would be a long time if your finger was in the fire,” he replied. Payne lived out his days in Todd and died in 1951.

Another notable grave is in the largest graveyard in Todd — Howell Cemetery. The cemetery, off NC 194 overlooking the valley coming into Todd from the Watauga side, has been used continuously since before the Civil War. At Howell Cemetery, you can very nearly trace the history of all the families of Todd, including the Todds. One of the oldest graves there belongs to C.R. Phillips, a toddler son of Capt. J.L. Phillips and his wife Jennie Greer. The boy died June 28, 1859. Three years later, his father led Company G of the North Carolina 58^th Infantry which was organized in July 1862. He was wounded at the battle of Chickamauga on Sept. 20, 1863.

According to John Preston Arthur’s A History of Watauga County North Carolina With Sketches of Prominent Families(1913), Phillips suffered a nearly mortal wound at Chickmaugua. “He was shot in the forehead by a pistol bullet during a battle in Tennessee, and while in the hospital his brains actually oozed out of the wound,” Arthur wrote. “Notwithstanding, he got well apparently and returned to his old home at Todd, where he taught school and made shoes, but in two or three years died from the effects of the old wound.”

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Jim on June 12, 2009

The Todd community’s 2009 Summer Music Series will kick off on Saturday, June 20 with a return to old time bluegrass music with a group from Alleghany County.
Uncle Nave Blevins and the Cranberry Creek Boys hail from Sparta and are sure to delight the audience with traditional bluegrass and Uncle Nave’s own-brand of mountain humor.
The Summer Music Series has been around since 1999 and continues to offer a showcase for Appalachian music with some of the area’s best-known artists. The 2009 lineup, featuring seven concerts, promises not to disappoint.

Uncle Nave Blevins and the Cranberry Creek Boys will perform Saturday, June 20 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Walter and Annie Cook Memorial Park.

Concerts are held each Saturday in Walter and Annie Cook Memorial Park in the heart of the Todd Historic District from 2 to 4 p.m. Concerts will continue through July. Concert goers are encouraged to bring a chair or blanket.
This year’s schedule also includes a special Labor Day weekend concert featuring Wayne Henderson and Helen White. Henderson is a world-renown luthier from Rugby, Va., who is a National Heritage Award recipient and has toured four continents.
Others in this year’s lineup are:
Amantha Mill (June 27) — This community-oriented folk/bluegrass group from Boone presents a mixture of traditional bluegrass and bluegrass gospel, plus the sounds of western swing and country, all with matchless vocal harmonies.
Buck Haggard Band (July 4) — Five local musicians decided to focus on country music, and named their band for two of its greats — Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Buck Haggard takes you back to the Forties and Fifties when country music still sounded like its country roots.
King Bees (July 11) — Hound Dog Baskerville and Queen Bee Zamagni are no strangers to Todd, their adopted hometown. The blues duo has been rockin’ venues around the globe for more than two decades, forging a soul-stirring sound that’s all their own.
Laura Boosinger (July 18) — Boosinger is an Asheville artist whose primary focus is the interpretation of traditional music from the Southern Appalachian region. Her concerts offer a step back to a simpler time, awakening memories for the elders and gently instilling important cultural lessons for the youngsters.
Dave Haney & Lisa Baldwin July 25) — Haney and Baldwin played together as a duo for 10 years in Baldwin’s native Alabama before moving to the High Country nearly a decade ago. Their acoustic repertoire includes Baldwin’s original songs, bluegrass, traditional folk and work of contemporary artists in the genre.
All the concerts in June and July are free of charge. There is a $5 admission charge for the Saturday, Sept. 5 concert featuring Henderson and White. Children 12 and under are admitted free.
The Todd Community Preservation Organization, now in its 10th year, relies on public support to produce the Summer Music Series. One of the series’ original organizers and advocates — the late James “Crow” Parsons, for whom the stage at Cook Park is named — was insistent that the music offerings be free to the public and TCPO’s Board of Directors have tried to adhere to that ideal.
In 2008 and 2009, the Series received grant funding through the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center’s STEP program and support from Handmade in America. Publicity for the TCPO Summer Music Series is supported by a grant from the Grassroots Arts Program of the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency, and a Community Arts Program grant from the Ashe County Arts Council.
TCPO is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: