Article from the May 8, 1941 edition of the Alleghany News.

Last Saturday Congressman Robert L. Doughton, chairman of the House ways and means committee, came to Sparta to help dedicate the new County Office building, recently completed as a WPA project, and to address his Alleghany home folks in an appeal for all possible aid to Britain.

Congressman Doughton lauded the work and the efficiency of the WPA and said regarding it,- “This building is a monument to what WPA has been doing. The farmers have been freed from isolation by the roads over which also the children can go to school, the mail can be delivered and the farmers can get to and from market. We have hundreds of new schools in the state, miles of water and sewer lines. What you have seen in Alleghany County has been done in every county in the state, in every county in the nation.”

Congressman Doughton related that. $11,000,000 had been spent in his congressional district; that the waste had been insignificant. He was satisfied with the report of accomplishments which he had requested from State WPA Administrator C.C. McGinnis, whom he lauded as a great public servant.

Regarding world affairs Congressman Doughton said, “We are faced with the greatest crisis in our history. We are in an inevitable emergency brought on by no fault of our own. The American people are beginning to awaken to the seriousness of the situation. With our people waked up, there is no task too great for them to meet.”

“Britain is our only ally and friend,” he continued. “She is fighting with her back to the wall. Help Britain as far as we can. Everybody is behind it. We are a nation above politics. Willkie, Knox and Stimson are walking hand and hand. As a nation, we have risen
above party lines.”

“England will go down without our wholehearted support. There is no question as to the intent of the diabolical, fiendish dictators. They are trying to make the rest of the world and us their bond slaves. England is fighting to preserve our way of life for herself and for us. The United States is confronted with that same danger.”

“Realize it right now, we must protect ourselves. We will have to pay more taxes. We will have to sacrifice for our country. Our people are united and they are ready to sacrifice. This is a dark, solemn hour. We will not fail to prepare and to make the sacrifices necessary to meet the emergencies.”

Chairman of the Alleghany county board of commissioners, Victor Phipps, accepted the structure in behalf of the county. The Hickory High School Band furnished the music for the occasion. Mentioned for great credit were Clyde Crutchfield, WPA district manager of North Wilkesboro, and Claude Mikes, WPA supervisor for Alleghany county. Reverend R.L. Berry gave the invocation, while Rev. L.F. Strader pronounced the benediction.

The ceremonies were held on an especially constructed platform in front of thee new building. In front of that, the crowd assembled to listen and pay honor to their distinguished congressman.

The gala occasion wound up with a dance in the new assembly hall of the WPA-built native stone structure.

We’ve recently scanned a scrap book of men and women from Alleghany County who served in World War II. The book belonged to Ima Smith of Cherry Lane and features news clippings about approximately 150 people.

Download a pdf, here.

The images are a little rough, at 80 years old, but the text is readable and the information is priceless. Clippings came from the Alleghany News and other local newspapers.

The Alleghany News has been a good partner and supporter of the Historical Museum since it began. The scrapbook was donated to the Museum by Ima Smith.

World War I officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919. However, fighting had ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954 the 83rd Congress amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With this legislation, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

Info from the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs

From the U.S. Army Center of Military History website

In 2007, Professor Susan E. Keefe of the Department of Anthropology at Appalachian State University led an ethnographic field school in Alleghany County. An ethnographic field school allows students to use the techniques of the anthropologist (principally participant observation and interviewing) in order to describe and understand the meaning of a people’s way of life. Students in the field school were placed with host families with whom they lived for four weeks. For the most part, students learned by living and talking to members of their host family, the family’s relatives, their friends, and their neighbors.

The research papers in the collection were produced by six students in the field school. While each paper investigates only a single aspect of life there, the collection as a whole gives insight into the culture of this rural Appalachian county.

Alleghany County lies in the northwestern corner of North Carolina. It has one of the smallest populations of any county in the state (9,591 in 1990), and the county seat, Sparta (population 1,957), is the only town in the county. The economy is based on agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. The Blue Ridge Parkway winds along the southern boundary of the county, introducing tourists since the 1930s to the natural beauty of the area.

– Information from the Preface

Please, Don’t Tread on Me: A Case Study of a Dairy Farm in the Appalachian South
-Amer Awad

The Effect of the Blue Ridge Parkway on Appalachian Farmers
-Shawna Chesto

Women’s Work in Alleghany County, NC
-Heidi M. Efird

Identity in a Mountain Family
-Kathryn L. Staley

It’s All Legal Until You Get Caught: Moonshining in the Southern Appalachians
-Jason Sumich

Making and Marketing Baskets: A Case Study of Basket Makers in Alleghany County, NC
-Miyuki Honda