Friday, September 28, 2007

Carolina Community Heritage Day This Sunday Honors Early Itawamba Settlers

This Sunday, September 30, the Carolina Community will celebrate 174 years of community from 9:30 a.m. – until. Carolina Heritage Day organizers are excited about hosting past and present residents, former students, historians, and friends at the Carolina Community Center. Admission to the event is free and donations will be accepted for the community center restoration. The community center is housed in the old brick Carolina School.

Carolina was established during the 1830’s when pioneers from the Newberry District area of South Carolina began to settle in the newly opened Chickasaw Cession lands of Mississippi. Because the rolling hills of Itawamba County strongly resembled the settlers’ original home, the community became known as Carolina.

Most of Carolina is geographically located between the Boguefula and Boguegaba Creeks in Itawamba County. Between those creeks, the visitor can discover the heart of the community with many roads containing beautiful scenes of nature, rural farms, forests, wildlife, and more.

Today, many citizens of Carolina are direct descendants of those early pioneers. Organizers of the event are hoping that Carolina Heritage Day will generate interest in the community’s rich history. Everyone attending the event is invited to dress ‘old fashioned’ as way of participating in the community’s celebration. There will be an old-time covered dish lunch served at noon.

Activities will include a grist mill demonstration, Carolina classroom re-enactment, wagon train, story time, dulcimer music, quilting, and other activities. Displays will include Chickasaw artifacts from the community, Carolina School photos, family photos, and much more, Most of the historical activities will occur during the afternoon.

Nearby cemeteries contain the graves of many of the area’s first settlers. These cemeteries include the Carolina Cemetery, Wiygul Cemetery, Conwill-Goodwin Cemetery, Myers-Shumpert Cemetery, New Chapel Cemetery, Elliot Cemetery, Boozer Cemetery, and Bean Cemetery. Local family historians will be able to assist visitors in locating the graves of these first settlers.

The Carolina Community Center is located on Carolina Road off Highway 371 in southwestern Itawamba County.

Photographs: Conwill's Store in the Carolina Community and Livingston pottery monument in New Chapel Cemetery.

2 comments:

Mona said...

Bob,
I am thoroughly enjoying your site and appreciate so much the information you are sharing. Do you know how the Boguefala and Boguegaba creeks got their name? (Did I spell those right?) Are the names Chickasaw in their origin or perhaps the settlers from South Carolina gave the creeks their name? If anyone would know, I figure you would. Thanks!

Bob Franks said...

Hi Mona. I have seen some very old maps from the Chickasaw Cession that had Boguefala Creek labeled as Long Creek (possibly in reference to Longtown, the old Chickasaw town). But I think "bogue" in the Chickasaw language means "creek." And I think I've seen "fala" is a blackbird or crow. Would be interesting to learn what "gaba" means. Thanks for your comments.