Tag: Odd Fellows
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What did it cost to bury someone in 1947?
A 1947 funeral statement from Pocahontas, Virginia, reveals just how costly a funeral could be for working families. The $567 bill, equivalent to roughly $8,480 today, helps explain why mutual aid societies were so essential to Black communities across Central Appalachia.
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From Blacksburg to Massachusetts — A Banner’s Journey and a Shared Legacy of Fraternal History
A Piece of Blacksburg’s Fraternal History Finds Recognition at a National Museum
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Freeman Family
The Freeman family played an important role in Blacksburg’s African American community during the early twentieth century. Bessie Briggs Freeman and her husband, Alonzo Freeman, Sr., built their lives and raised their daughters in the Jackson Street neighborhood during the era of segregation. Bessie’s name appeared on the 1919 deed for their home, and she…
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Beatrice Freeman Walker & St Luke
On December 17, 2013, Ms. Beatrice Walker recorded an oral history for Virginia Tech’s University Special Collections at the St. Luke, Odd Fellows, and Household of Ruth Hall. As a key figure in preserving the building and a Trustee on the deed now held by the Town of Blacksburg, her testimony provides invaluable insights absent…