Newsletter Articles from the Summer 2017 issue of the Marble Springs Gazette.
School
Tours
By Samantha Burleson
The
spring school tours were another tremendous success! Our great group of
volunteers really stepped up again this spring to help with the increasing
number of large groups; many schools bringing 100 students or more! As always,
their knowledge and experience are what help make these tours so enjoyable for
the students. Many teachers expressed that they wish to return next year and
parents as well as students can be heard expressing their delight. I have said
it many times, but it never fails to be completely true: we simply could not
have the success we do without this great group of people.
Some
of the favorite topics and activities are the militia drill, seeing the
spinning wheel spin wool, the story of how John Sevier meets Bonny Kate, and,
believe it or not, doing chores in the tavern. We are hoping to be able to add
some clothing that the children can try on and maybe even writing with quill
and ink or making butter. We are looking forward to the same success in the
fall but to add these new activities we will need more help. If you think you
would like to help with anything from sewing children’s clothes, running our
trading post, or even interpreting a building with the students, don’t hesitate
to let us know. We are always happy to have new volunteers.
Storytelling
Festival
By Samantha Burleson
The
storytelling festival is a culturally rich event that we were able to bring
back this year. Storytellers Millie Sieber, Cuz Headrick, Susan Fulbright, and
Sheri Liles from the Smoky Mountain Storytellers Association were able to join
us Saturday, May 6th with Civil War stories, funny stories, and some Native
American stories. All of these folks are wonderful storytellers and had their
audiences hanging on every word. This year also incorporated some music. The
Knoxville Dulcimer Club came and played a few tunes in the morning. As always,
the music was beautiful. Chip Bailey was another addition this year and his
talk and performance of Stephen Foster’s music was truly a delight.
The
performances and storytelling had to be moved into the tavern because of the
rain and the cold, but that only added to the cozy feel of many of the stories.
Many visitors that attended were not deterred by the rain either. The audience,
storytellers, and musicians enjoyed sitting around the fireplace and enjoyed
the older traditions together. The Tennessee Arts Commission grant we received
is how we were able to bring this event back this year. We are truly grateful
for the grant award.
Statehood
Days
By Samantha Burleson
Every
year the Historic Homes of Knoxville put on an event at each site to celebrate
the anniversary of Tennessee being admitted as the 16th state. The official date of Tennessee’s statehood is
June 1st, so Marble Springs chooses Memorial Day weekend to celebrate. This
year we brought back the living history event for statehood and it turned out
to be a great success. Many of our typical living history demonstrations were
present such as the militia, the open camps, and blacksmithing, but we were
also able to introduce a couple of new demonstrations. Our volunteer Madeline
was able to demonstrate dying with indigo and Fran and Nani made cheese on
Saturday. We had over 400 visitors that weekend!
The
weather, something that we always need to be concerned about, stayed beautiful
for us all weekend. Despite the big storm on Saturday evening, during the event
there was no rain and the heat was down. Everything that we could have asked
for went great that weekend.
Farmer’s
Market
By Samantha Burleson
This
year is looking to be a great year for produce. There has been so much rain
already that gardens are growing like, well, weeds. Our first couple of weeks
in May started out a bit slow for our vendors since the produce hadn’t quite
grown yet, but things are picking up more and more every week. Our vendors have
great produce every week with tomatoes, kale, beets, and even some berries
starting to appear.
I’m
pleased to see some new vendors this year along with some of our tried and true
such as the Cantrells and the Hitchs. One such family, the Ziebols, have fresh
eggs that they bring every week also. I have also heard from Mr. Stutts and
will be attending again this year with his local honey. We are happy to see his
honey bees happily buzzing around Marble Springs, making some of the best honey
around.
The
farmer’s market is a great addition to the community here and the produce is so
wonderful. We greatly enjoy being able to provide this area for the local
farmer’s and see people from South Knoxville able to enjoy some delicious fresh
food. We hope to see it grow throughout the season with more vendors and more
great vegetables. Make sure to stop by on Thursdays from 3 pm to 6 pm and see
what is available. You can follow our Facebook page as well, Marble Springs
Farmer’s Market, for updates on what is here every week.
Director’s
Message
By Anna Chappelle
Greetings!
Within this issue you will hear
about upcoming and past events, our mission accomplishments (we love our school
tours!), and details about ongoing projects such as our Pollinator Project.
Summer
is officially here! This is a great time to start looking for locations for
your family reunion, birthday, or other celebration. We have a brand new roof
on our pavilion, so if you would like to use Marble Springs for your special
event, please contact us today. We have a small rental fee for up to 30 guests,
in addition to flexible fees for larger events. Every rental helps Marble
Springs raise funds to reach our mission of education and preservation.
If
you would like to keep up to date with the latest news, programs, receive
discounts on rentals, and free site tours, please consider a membership with
Marble Springs. Details about giving levels and benefits can be found on our
website http://www.marblesprings.net/memberships. We can accept payment
through PayPal on our webiste, or you can mail a check to us at PO Box 20195,
Knoxville, TN 37940.
We
got the Knoxville SOUP! On April 27th we presented our Marble
Springs Educational School Tour Project that was awarded $830 to go towards
supplies for hands on activities that will be used for our school tours. Funds
will be used to purchase wooden muskets for militia drills, child sized period
clothing, wool cards, and more. Children learn more with hands on learning
opportunities and we are VERY grateful that we can provide this experience for
the students. More details about Knoxville SOUP can be found here
http://southknoxvillealliance.org/index.cfm/m/12#.WULQhuvyvIV
I
wish to express my deepest gratitude to the volunteers who have worked
tirelessly with Marble Springs to help us facilitate our events and school
tours that educate the public about John Sevier, in addition to grounds maintenance, and other projects. We are a small
staff, but we are made stronger through the help of our passionate volunteers.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Anna
Chappelle
Pollinator Garden Update
By John Gammon
Summer
has begun and a lot of progress has been made towards competing the new
pollinator garden. In spring the list of plants that we wanted for the
project was sent to a local organization called the Native Plant Rescue Squad.
They specialize in going around the area saving native plants from lands that
are schedule for development. We acquired over 50 different species to be
planted in four different beds around our main camping area just south of where
we have our Thursday farmer market. We had so many plants coming that we
had to spread out delivery over a three week period! We were making some
good progress but because spring is one of the busiest times of the year at the
site, we had to wait until the boy scouts came to help finish planting. We’re
now in the stage to start landscaping the pollinator beds by making a natural
boundary between the garden and camping area. To accomplished this we
will be using a cache of pine logs that were looking for a purpose. Also on
this list includes the need to build two rain barrel stations to provide water
for insect and plants if needed, as well as to install some plant signage that
our volunteer Nani Brabson made to help people know what they are looking at.
Our Pollinator Garden is coming along and should be done by this July.
Annual
Meeting
By Samantha Burleson
This
year’s annual meeting for the Governor John Sevier Memorial Association went
spectacularly. It was an intimate gathering this year but we were pleased to
see some familiar faces such as our lifetime member, Clara Haggaman, and Past
President of the Board of Directors, Mike Toomey. The weather was also kind to
us with the rain having finished up that morning and a delightful breeze that
kept everyone cool.
This year we will be saying goodby to Board
member Jan Brown who is stepping down. We will still get to see her at the
Farmer’s Market every now and then and she has agreed to continue to help with
the Sevier Soiree. We are thankful to have been able to work with such a
go-getter like Jan and we will miss your enthusiasm. Martha Whiley has also had
to step down because of her new position that has relocated her to Virginia.
Martha has been a great asset to our team, helping with finding and submitting
grants for Marble Springs. Martha will also be missed but we wish her the best
with her new position. We also got a change to welcome the new Board member,
Martha Yoakum. She has been volunteering and helping with school tours and
events for the past year and has been a much needed and greatly appreciated
helping hand. She has a wonderful range of skill sets and we are excited to
have her join us for this next coming year.
This
coming year will also see new executive officers with Brooke Maner as Board
President, Michael Lynch as Vice President, Adam Alfrey as Treasurer, and
Katherine McPhaul as Secretary.
We
have a great group of people on our Board of Directors and we are all looking
forward to making this year another great one at Marble Springs.
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