An extensive new look at the lives of African Americans who worked at Rock Hill/Connemara and the White families who owned and employed them. Prepared for the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site by the National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/carl/learn/historyculture/upload/508_CARL-HRS.pdf
James Fisher worked at Connemara as a valet and chauffeur for the Smyth family in the early 1900’s. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/black-history.htm
The Henderson County Education Foundation inducted eight honorees into the Education Foundation Hall of Fame on April 26, 2007, at the Hendersonville Country Club. The inductees were from diversified backgrounds – teachers, principals, a bus supervisor, an attorney, a custodian. But they shared one trait. …
Alma Avery shares her experiences growing up in poverty and then later working in a box factory in Henderson County. Watch Alma Avery’s interview with the Mountain Elder Wisdom Project
Kathleen Featherstone Williams is a member of the Featherstone Clan and a native of Asheville, N.C. She was born on November 1, 1920. She graduated with honors in 1938 from Stephens-Lee High School in Asheville. She went on to the Stewarts Beauty School in Asheville, graduating in 1940. …
Mrs. Sandra Suber provided the community with beautiful hats from her shop in Mills River. https://theurbannews.com/our-town/2017/my-story-my-journey/
Johnny Young owned a concrete finishing business. His projects included the sidewalks of Downtown Hendersonville, Carolina Village and Four Seasons Mall. Johnny Young was a self-employed concrete finisher who owned and operated his own business for over 30 years in Henderson County. His work projects …
James Pilgrim was a nationally prominent funeral director who raised Senator Cory Booker’s father in Hendersonville. James Pilgrim was born in 1915 of parents who came to Hendersonville from South Carolina to cook in some of the city’s famous old inns. He graduated from Stephens-Lee …
Donald R. “Donnie” Parks, Hendersonville’s First African-American Chief of Police. Black Bottom The real estate bounded by Kanuga, Barnwell and South Church Streets once hosted “Black Bottom,” a hamlet of stilt houses occupied by members of Hendersonville’s African American townspeople. The houses, mostly built in …
Terry Smith joined the fire department in 1985. https://wlos.com/news/local/first-african-american-hendersonville-firefighter-continues-serving-the-community