Eva Spencer, Earl Spencer, Hardwick Spencer (toddler in Earl’s arms), Earlene Spencer (behind her brother), and Bobby Wiley are joyous to great Santa Claus! This photograph may have a connection to Hargrave Military Academy, since Earl Spencer is in his uniform from HMA. Or it could have been a Chatham church or civic event.
Photograph from the Preston B. Moses Collection. Thank you to the Moses family for sharing the picture!
There are actually some names written on the back: Sam White, Judith Brown, ? Evans, Gail Motley, James Worsham, Chip Wells, Ann Giles, Donald (maybe?) George, John Crows, MaryLu or Mary Lee Hill, Robert Leigh. The baby is a doll, obviously.
From the Preston B. Moses collection. Special thanks to the Moses family for sharing this photo.
This damaged picture, from the 1950s, comes from the Preston B. Moses Collection, courtesy the Moses family. It was presumably taken in a Pittsylvania County school. One of the students has been identified as Hallam Hurt. (I love the girls’ clothing and hairstyles!)
Baptisms were often held in Pittsylvania County at the conclusion of revivals. A Rev. Mr. Lake wrote that at one baptismal held at Kentuck, Virginia in 1871, he baptized “forty-three persons — some far advanced in life — and some six or eight more will be baptized at our next meeting.” (The Christian Era, Boston, Massachusetts, August 17, 1871.) Baptisms were also often held at the conclusion of the Pentecostal Holiness camp meetings held in the summer in Dry Fork, Virginia, in the 1920s and 1930s.
Undated picture (probably mid-1900s) from the Preston B. Moses collection, courtesy the Moses family. Artistic touches added by Sarah E. Mitchell.
