Central Virginia Heritage, Fall 2019
Central Virginia Heritage, Fall 2019
I’m delighted to announce that the Fall 2019 issue of Central Virginia Heritage includes my article: “One Man’s Black Sheep is Another Man’s Local Hero: Discovering Gene Harris and Chicago’s Club Alabam.”
How did I end up writing about Chicago? As many family historians know, sometimes our families migrate beyond the borders of Buckingham County, even Virginia!
When my extended Harris family, including my grandmother Minnie Garland Harris, left Buckingham County, Virginia to settle in a small town in southern Iowa called Leon, my great-grandfather, Clay Harris, married again. His son, Eugene Alexander “Gene” Harris, my grandmother’s half-brother, became the first in my very long line of Harrises to be born outside of Virginia. As the 20th century unfolded, Gene led an exciting life far from his bucolic Buckingham County roots.
In this issue you’ll also find Karen Lucas Williams’ article: “The Spiller Family of Buckingham County, Virginia; Documents from the Case of James M. Spiller, etc. vs. Reuben Sorrell; Henry Spiller & Wife vs. Mary Calvert, Culpeper County, VA.”
And more . . . Articles about Chestnut Grove Baptist Church, Earlysville, VA; Marriage Announcements in the Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA), August-December, 1894; Gathering to Share African American History and Genealogy in Central VA; The Tale of a Black Sheep: Stephen Price Maury; Fluvanna Historical Society Preserves Court Records; and Fluvanna County Circuit Court Awarded Grant to Preserve Local Records.
Copies are available at Amazon.
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Want to learn even more about Gene Harris’ colorful life
and Chicago’s Rush Street Institution — Club Alabam?
Click here: The Blackest Sheep.
slate river ramblings . . . . 
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