The Mail Box - November, 1988

Issue: November, 1988

Dear Friends,
I was fortunate in being given the November 1987 copy of your very interesting and informative publication. I have read it through a few times and find I can relate to many of the articles written by the local people.

I am 70 years old and the oldest of ten children that my mother and father were blessed with. My youngest brother (the youngest child) was born in 1929. I can well remember the Great Depression.

After reading the copy I received, I must subscribe also. Keep up this very interesting publication.

Thanks,
J. C. Baugham
Richmond, Virginia

Dear Mountain Laurel Folks,
Yesterday I drove a lady home from the grocery store. We chatted all the way home and as she gathered her groceries to take inside she said she had something she felt I would enjoy reading as much as she did.

This is the first I have ever heard of The Mountain Laurel. The issues she let me read are from 1986 and 1987. I can hardly put them down. They have given me more pleasure than anything I have read in a long time. Please put me on your mailing list as fast as possible. I can hardly wait for the next issue.

Sincerely,
A. Meadors
Eden, North Carolina

Dear Ms. Thigpen,
First, let me state how very much I enjoy the paper. Those to whom I have sent it to through a subscription, also greatly enjoy it and I am sure everyone looks forward to receiving it.

I will appreciate it very much if you will print the following in your next issue:

I have endeavored to locate two books on the Akers and Payne Families. These books trace the lineage of my mother. The names of these books are: "The Akers Family of Franklin County" and "The Paynes of Virginia." If anyone can assist me in locating these books, I shall be most grateful.

Thank you,
L. W. Vest
Box 5132
Roanoke, VA 24012

Dear Ms. Thigpen,
Enclosed is a check for Collection #2 of the Laurel Library.

My sister gave us a gift to The Mountain Laurel after we came back from Galax, Virginia last fall. We enjoy it very much.

We left Virginia in 1943 but we try to go back and spend two weeks with my sister, Nora Lee Leonard in September. We see a lot of family and loved ones. It is so nice that friends come to visit us as well as family.

We were hoping someone would write about the Allen House between Hillsville and Fancy Gap, Virginia. Someone told my husband the house was built with wooden pegs, no nails. We were there last fall. It was a week day and they were not open.

Thank you,
Mrs. A. B. Lawson
Wilmington, Deleware

Dear Mountain Laurel,
I have been reading your monthly journal for some time, even before I started getting my own copy by subscription. I really enjoy all of the articles.

In the January-February 1988 issue is an article that especially caught my eye. It was, "The Cabin Of Edna Harville" by Rebecca Butcher. We had an Edna Harville in our neighborhood in Pittsylvania County, this article almost described her to be the one in the article. She lived in a log house that resembled the one in the photograph. Our Edna had a larger family, two brothers and six sisters. She (our Edna) spent her last days with a sister before she passed away.

I am a shut-in and your Mountain Laurel means a lot to me. I like mountain country, mountain scenery and mountain style living. I keep all my issues and refer back to them from time to time.

Yours truly,
H. E. Ricketts
Danville, Virginia

Dear Mountain Laurel,
I would like to contact members of the Bower family of Floyd County, Virginia who are the descendants of Philip and Christopher Bower, brothers who married Snuffer sisters. I am preparing a history of the Snuffer family, who lived on the headwaters of Shooting Creek, Franklin County, Virginia before the Civil War.

Jim Wood
111 Daniel St.
Beckley, WV 25801

Dear Readers,
Just a reminder that the Genealogy column on page 13 is free on a first come, first served basis for people searching for their Blue Ridge roots.

Susan Thigpen, Editor

Dear Sirs,
Please renew my subscription to The Mountain Laurel. I would also like to send a gift subscription to my friends.

When I finish reading your paper I give it to them and all of us just love it. You can hardly believe how people lived back then and how wonderfully talented those people were. Your paper gives us a lot of good reading and we sure do enjoy it.

Keep up the good work!

Mr. & Mrs. A.P. Jones
Stafford, Virginia