Gum Springs Historical Society, Inc. Participates in National History Day Contest

Ronald Chase, President, Gum Springs Historical Society, Inc., recently participated in the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest held at University of Maryland at College Park, MD, June 12-16, 2016.  The contest is run on a local, state and national level, involving more than 600,000 students.  Less than 1% make it to the National level.  All 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, and international schools in Central America, China, Korea, and South Asia were represented at College Park. 

National History Day provides young people with a high quality educational experience, with each student responsible for research, design and creation of their entry in one of five competitive categories:  website, papers, exhibits, performance or documentary.  It also engages the students in critical thinking skills that is hugely beneficial to college and career readiness.  For the documentary category, all entries were judged on historical quality, relation to this year’s theme “Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History. 

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.)

Spring Break At Gum Springs

We were happy to welcome Diamond, Noah, and William Jones to the museum on Tuesday, March 29, 2016.  The sun was shining and kids home on Spring Break - couldn't have asked for a better day to make a road trip and share some history of where "Dad" grew up.  Ron Chase, President, Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum, provided a tour of the exhibits and engaged in an informative conversation about the history of Gum Springs founding families - Belfield, Brown, Chase, Gray, King and Young.

Pictured (L to R): Diamond , Noah and William Jones with Ron Chase

William is no stranger to Gum Springs or Route 1.  He grew up on the Route 1 Corridor (Belford Manor--behind the Popeye's, Huntington, Woodlawn Gardens, and Cherry Arms).  After attending Whitman and Mt Vernon High, William went off to college earning his undergraduate, and graduate degrees (Masters of Business Administration (MBA)), along with passing the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) exams. William is currently employed as the Controller with Southeastern Universities Research Association in Washington D.C.