Host organization Good Shepherd Episcopal Church of Hayesville, NC invites the area community to participate in the Duane Miller Memorial Golf Tournament to be held at Hayesville's The Ridges Country Club on September 30. Activities begin at 11:00 a.m. with a golfer’s lunch and continue into the evening with a reception at 5:00 p.m. and dinner open to the community at 6:30 p.m.
Good Shepherd parish is a special place. Its people and God’s spirit make it so. When Marilyn Pierce retired in Spring 2015, I knew that I needed to find someone special to fill that pastoral care director position. I wanted someone who was a leader, highly skilled, prayerful, and very good with people - a special person to lead the care of a special people.
Jason Lee Edwards comes by his interest in the African-American families of our area for good reason: his ancestors once owned a slave. The award-winning historian will present a talk on Finding the Forgotten: The African-American Families of Towns and Clay Counties at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church Hayesville on Saturday, June 10, from 10:00 until 12:00. Everyone is invited.
Edwards will share his findings about the African-American families of the Hiawassee and Brasstown Valleys during the period from the 1790s to the 1910s. He has gathered information about enslaved persons, free persons of color, and the families who moved into this area post-emancipation.
Edwards, who has been researching local and family history for almost 20 years, says, “I discovered that my Russell ancestors of Towns County had purchased a slave named Jack, and I wanted to know more about him and what became of him. This led me to discover that following emancipation, Jack moved to Clay County, where he lived for a number of years.” Both Clay and Towns Counties once had thriving African-American communities. “I made it my mission,” he claims, “to find out as much as I could about the early families and to share that information with others so that these African-Americans would no longer be forgotten.”
Although Edwards' family roots run deep in the Hiawassee and Brasstown Valleys, his greatgrandparents, like many others, had to leave the area to find work, so he grew up west of Atlanta. But when he visited relatives in the mountains, he always felt that he was “at home.” In 2015 he moved to the area to attend Young Harris College, where he majored in history. He was the 2017 recipient of the Joseph Wilson Boone award for the most outstanding history major at the college, and when he graduated on May 6 of this year, he was awarded a medal for the highest GPA in the graduating class, a 4.0.
He has also served as president of the Paulding County Georgia Historical Society. After moving to Young Harris, he was appointed Deputy Historian of Town County in 2016. At Edwards' talk at Good Shepherd, refreshments will be served, and after the talk, the audience will visit the Fort Hembree cemetery in Hayesville, where some African-Americans are buried.
Good Shepherd is located at 495 Herbert Hills Drive on Hwy. 64E, about a mile east of Walgreen's. The website describes the church's many other programs: www.goodshepherdhayesville.org.
Summer is almost here, and this means that many motorcyclists will be sharing our wonderful curving roads again. Now bikers can ask for a special blessing for themselves, their passengers, fellow riders, and their bikes at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church Hayesville on Sunday June 4.
The rector of Good Shepherd, Father Bill Breedlove, invites all bikers to bring their cycles to church on that Sunday. After the 10:45 service, Fr. Bill will bless them in the church parking lot.
Susanne Treacy, who plans the annual event, says, “Everyone in the local communities is invited to come, no matter what your religious affiliation or what kind of bike you drive.” All are welcome to participate in the service at 10:45. The blessing will be given right after the service, about noon, followed by coffee hour and fellowship with the parishioners.
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, whose rector and members are intent on boldly engaging the world as God's shepherds, is located at 495 Herbert Hills Drive, about a mile east of Walgreens. The church website describes the many programs and ministries of the church: www.goodshepherdhayesville.org
