Wake County Genealogical Society Blog: Wake Forest Museum

Showing posts with label Wake Forest Museum. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Wake Wednesday - Major General Calvin Jones, M. D. of Wake Forest

Did you miss the Summer 2024 feature about Major General Calvin Jones, M. D. of Wake Forest in the Wake Genealogy Watch newsletter?

If so, here is your reminder to seek out the feature to correct that mistake! Ed Morris, the former executive director of the Wake Forest Historical Museum shares his vast knowledge on Jones and illustrates why he can truly be called an early Wake County renaissance man. Jones was a soldier, medical man, entrepreneur, educator, politician and founder of a school that would eventually become Wake Forest University. This is not guilding the lilly. There is much more to know. I don't want to spoil Ed's masterful telling of the story, so I will direct you to it with the encouragement to keep a sharp eye. You don't want to miss how Major General Calvin cleverly saved North Carolina from being a battleground state in the War of 1812. He was truly a masterful strategist!

Dr. Calvin Jones of Wake Forest. Portrait
photo by Ken Bennett, Wake Forest University

This featured article can be accessed in this issue of the WGW on pages 3-7.

You can browse all the past issues of The Wake Genealogy Watch at this link.

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Wake Wednesday - The Wake Weekly: local newspaper now digital

The Wake Forest Historical Museum has shared its collection of The Wake Weekly in order to make them available digitally online. The collection is now live and ready for viewing. At NC Digital, you will find issues for 1952 and 1960 - 1962.

source

Will you browse for ancestors or for nostalgia? It is all good.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Wake Wednesday - Samuel Nathaniel Vass

I like to find interesting posts of Wake County origin to share with you on Wednesday, but when someone else does it better, my time and yours is best served by referring you to an original post.

Today I want to send you in the direction of the Wake Forest Museum blog where assistant director, Jennifer Smart, has shared the life story of early civil rights activist, Samuel Nathaniel Vass. She tells his story in all its shades of pain and inspiration. Please read here.

Favorite quotes:
“There is one thing certain and that is: We’ve got to live side by side, so why can’t we be friends, respecting the rights of each other at all times.”
- Dr Rufus Vass, Federal Writers Project interview.

"Here at the museum, we constantly search for our local African American history. Too often, we hit a dead end.It’s like sitting in a theater, waiting for the show to start. We hear the murmur of voices coming from backstage–men, women, old, young, all different ages and accents and dialects. Then the curtain rises and there’s this group of really dignified white men in suits. They are phenomenal talkers. Super smart. Sometimes they make speeches. But all the time, the only story they tell is their story. They never stop to listen to anyone else. They never even look around. And yet we can still hear those voices whispering.It makes us want to shout from the audience, “For history’s sake… look into the wings! If you can’t move aside for the next act, at least tell us what’s going on back there!” "

- Jennifer Smart

Read now. You will be glad you did.

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Wake Wednesday - Wake Forest Christmas c. 1875

I have shared this before, but I just love this account of Christmas in Wake Forest in 1875.