Thursday, April 14, 2016

Gum Springs, VA, Family History - East Coast Connections


              Pictured (L to R):  Cynthia Hill-James, Denielle Hill, Ron Chase,
              Zaena Terra, Vivian Hill-Terra and Linda Hill-Dogan.
On Monday, April 11, 2016, the Museum received visitors from Florida (Pines and Lakeland), Washington D.C. and Maryland.

The visitors are nieces and great nieces of Ron Chase, Director, Gum Springs Museum and Cultural Center.

Pictured on the wall are Harriett Cortrell (square brown frame) and John Brown [b. 1875- ] (oval brown frame). John Brown was the grandson of Lovelace Brown and the great grandson of West Ford.


Springtime in Gum Springs

Pictured:   Laura Hill,  Ron Chase,  and  Alan Hill

Alan Hill, and his lovely wife, Laura, dropped by for a visit and got an update on family members that helped develop the Gum Springs, VA, community.  Currently residing in Omaha, NE, Alan is the son of  the late Walter Hill, Jr, and the great, great, great grandson of Lovelace Brown.  

Loveless Brown, along with Samuel K. Taylor, Robert King, Nathan Webb, Hamilton Gray, all men of the Bethlehem Baptist Church, created the Joint Stock Company in 1890.  These men formed an idea of expansion, with the desire to build a community, pooling their monies to corner the land market in Gum Springs, VA, and reselling their holdings to other African Americans needing and wanting a place of security.  (The Joint Stock Company sold their holdings without monetary gain.)