School Days: Concord School, early 1890’s
Concord School is one of the numerous small school houses that existed in the Armuchee Valley area. It was situated towards the northern end of Concord Road just across the way from Concord Church. Previous Jordan’s Journey contributor Rhonda Locke recently sent me a wonderful “new” photo. Rhonda describes the photo: I was excited to […]
Photo from Concord Methodist Church, Villanow, GA
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here at Jordan’s Journey. Life happens, things change, and I just have not had the time to put into creating new content for this blog. For now I’m keeping it online as I think the posts are a valuable archive. People do still visit the site […]
Georgia Backroads: “We Are One People” [Out Now!]
![Georgia Backroads: "We Are One People" [Out Now!]](https://bd-studios.com/journey/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/georgia-backroads-autumn-2013-cover-150x150.jpg)
I am very pleased to announce the publication of my latest article in the current (Autumn 2013) issue of Georgia Backroads. “We Are One People” is an exploration of my ancestral ties to slavery, focusing specifically on the Armuchee Valley and Dirt Town Valley regions. My original photography, as well as antique images I curated, […]
Weather the Storm: Remembering the Blizzard of 1993
It was around this time–20 years ago–that the lights came back on. That is, things were just starting to get back to normal in northwest Georgia after the blizzard of 1993. I remember it well. Out on the farm in East Armuchee, we were without power for a week. We were lucky to have a wood […]
History of the Kinsey-Kenemer Cemetery [Guest Post]
![History of the Kinsey-Kenemer Cemetery [Guest Post]](https://bd-studios.com/journey/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/kinsey-kenemery-cemetery_cherokee-cabin-150x150.jpg)
I’m pleased to present the very first guest post here at Jordan’s Journey. Today’s article and photos are by Lynne McGehee Cabe. Lynne is not only a fellow descendant of several of the earliest Armuchee Valley families but a Scoggins descendant too! Trained as a professional social worker and public administrator, Lynne became interested in […]
East Armuchee Baptist Church [video]
![East Armuchee Baptist Church [video]](https://bd-studios.com/journey/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/east-armuchee-church-video-still-150x150.jpg)
This video on the history of East Armuchee Baptist Church is a great one to share as we draw close to the one year anniversary of the Jordan’s Journey blog. Several elements in this film connect with things I’ve written about on the blog, such as Delila Brown ward (here, here, and here), some watermelon […]
Halloween Memories in East Armuchee
‘Tis the season when ghosts and goblins start to make appearances. Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of years. You’d never know that to be around me on the holiday though. I haven’t dressed up in years. I don’t go to parties. And due to the infamous Greenwich Village Halloween Parade that passes literally […]
Two Mules, A Buggy, and Some Friends
Today’s post is the above photo (be sure to click to see the full image). I don’t know much about the image other than who the people are. I estimate it was taken in the late 1930’s. I’m not sure where it was taken (possibly somewhere in East Armuchee, as that’s where the people are […]
Earl Jordan’s Barn [video]
![Earl Jordan's Barn [video]](https://bd-studios.com/journey/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/barn-shoot-150x150.jpg)
It’s time for another Jordan’s Journey video. Last time I explored some Civil War-era family roots out in Arkansas with my Caney Fork video. That video was a bit longer form than anything else I’ve done here so far and took a more explicitly documentary approach. The video I’m sharing with you today takes us […]
Connections: Pretty People at Puryear Woods
The Puryear family is a well known family of the Armuchee Valley area. While I do not descend from the Puryears directly, they do (like the Suttles) connect in my tree through marriage. Nancy Elizabeth Ward is my 3rd great grand aunt and she married Hamilton Young Puryear (1841-1903). Hamilton is a son of William […]
Coming Home: More Music from East Armuchee
When I asked my mom if she knew of any recordings of music at East Armuchee Baptist Church she at first told me no. Then, almost as if I had willed it into existence, a few days later my mother–rummaging through some old junk–found a bag of old cassette tapes. She wasn’t sure where the tapes […]
The Mythology of Genealogy (or, The Stories We Tell)
Recently I wrote a series of posts on Delila Brown Ward (see here, here, and here). Today is a sort of followup to those posts, focusing on Delila’s husband, Alfred C. Ward. Alfred (or Alford) C. Ward, my 4th great grandfather, was a son of Absalom Ward and Nancy Ann Coleman and the grandson of […]
Connections: The Pettyjohn Family and Me
I love studying genelaogy–and not just the genealogy of my direct ancestors. I love looking at all the different branches of my tree, discovering unique and interesting connections all over the place. Sometimes you can map out distant relationships to famous individauls and other times you discover you’re kin to people you’ve known for years… […]
School Days: Villanow School, circa late 1930’s
Today I have another entry for the School Days series. This time I present a photo from the Villanow School which stood in Villanow at the opposite end of the valley as the Subligna School photo I shared last time. The Villanow school was among the last one room school houses in the area. The […]
Concord Road [video]
![Concord Road [video]](https://bd-studios.com/journey/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/concord-road-still-150x150.jpg)
Today I present the second history video here on Jordan’s Journey. The first video, Suttle’s Mill, was just a short teaser to get things started. This new video, Concord Road, takes the concept a bit further. Concord Road is one of the smaller roads in the East Armuchee valley. It’s not a main thruway and […]
Little Country Church: Memories of Music at East Armuchee
If you were to ask me what are the most important things to me, music would certainly be one of the top items on that list. Looking back as far back as I can remember music has always played an important role in my life. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know music has […]
Uncovering the Past through Art: Sacred Harp and Forgotten Family Memories
Way back before Jordan’s Journey came out I was doing all kinds of work not only writing, photographing, and designing the book but also figuring out how this website was going to work, what I wanted to do for the book trailer, and of course the research itself. As an artist, most everything I do […]
Forever Young: Mapping Connections Between Armuchee Valley Families
This past week I visited Young Cemetery in West Armuchee in Walker County, Georgia. I always enjoy old cemeteries, particularly those in the Armuchee and Dirt Town Valleys. Young Cemetery is overgrown. It’s difficult to navigate through the graves and I got stuck by more than my fair share of briar branches… but hiking through […]
Pope Pedigree: Henry Morris Pope
Even though I descend from many generations that, for the most part, lived and died in the same general area where I grew up, there are a number of people in my extended tree that had more adventurous spirits and planted family roots elsewhere. I enjoy exploring those lines and stories, contemplating the way some […]
Armuchee (ᎠᎽᏥ)
When I tell people I grew up in East Armuchee they almost inevitably say, “Ar-what?” If you spell it out for them, they say, “Ar-MU-chee?” It’s hard to make people understand the way we say it: Ar-MUR-chee. Yes, it’s weird, I know that. But it’s the way we say it. It’s like how in New […]
Ridges and Valleys and Streams… Oh My!
The area of northwest Georgia where I grew up is part of the Valley and Ridge region. This region is made up of “long northeast-southwest-trending valleys and ridges that give the region its name” (Geology). The region is not unique to Georgia and “extends continuously from New York to the edge of the Coastal Plain […]