Newsletter

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.

Shellie O’Neal has long been inspired by the life and work of Fanny Crosby: she first learned of Mrs. Crosby in a Sunday School class when she was 7 years old. Thirty-one years later, while Shellie was writing a children’s religious play, she encountered Fanny’s story again and felt God leading her to write a play she could perform about this remarkable woman. O’Neal penned this play after conducting research which culminated in a trip to New York City, where she visited the New York Institution for the Blind where Crosby received her education and served as a teacher.

Kerry Jones, U.S. National Park Service “The Life of Colonel H.C. Thruston”. Jones will be discussing the Battle of Pea Ridge - where many soldiers from what is now Franklin County fought, and many died - and Colonel Henry Clay Thruston who was wounded at the Battle of Pea Ridge, before coming to Franklin County as a farmer, and living here the rest of his life.

The Orphan Train By Teela Hurt. Teela will be speaking on the Orphan Train Movement, which relocated children from New York City to towns in 47 states across the nation from 1854 until 1929, when the last train brought three children to Sulphur Springs.

Paul Benson “The Man Who Invented Christmas” Dr. Paul Benson, Professor of Humanities, Mountain View College, will give a wide-ranging and whimsical talk on the creation and evolution of America’s Christmas. He will argue that an obscure Professor of Oriental Languages from New York City fundamentally set the course for our most important holiday. In relationship with this Professor, Paul will show how the old patron saint of pawnbrokers, Saint Nicholas, came to be associated with Christmas.

Historic and Heritage Foods By Anne Evetts. Anne Evetts will be presenting our July program on Heritage foods—recipes from days gone by.

“How Mexico’s Far North Became the American Southwest By Dr. Andrew Torget. Dr. Andrew Torget is a historian of nineteenth-century North America at the University of North Texas. He directs the Digital History Lab, where he founded and directed projects including Mapping Texts, Texas Slavery Project, Voting America, and the History Engine. His work has revolved around two intersecting themes: the expansion of the American South into the West and developing new digital methods for research, scholarship, and teaching.

“Choctaw Indian School and The Wheelock Academy” By Dawn Standridge. Dawn Standridge lives in Antlers, Oklahoma, and grew up in southeastern Oklahoma in a traditional Choctaw home with grandparents and extended family close by. Ms. Standridge attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and received a degree in History Education. She earned her second degree in Native American Studies in 1995.