To the delight of hundreds of residents and area visitors, the Union County Historical Society hosted its inaugural Blairsville Music & Seafood Festival on the lawn of the Butt-Mock House in Downtown Blairsville April 25-27.
In addition to gourmet food provided by local businesses, there were raffles and give-a-ways and a bouncy house for the kids. Some of the vendors included Lucky’s, Pizza Belly, Sammy’s Subs, and Blairsville Social provided the beer and wine.
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Historical Society President Mike Cook was the brainchild behind the festival and hopes the first outing serves as the beginning of a new tradition and repeat fundraiser.
“Our purpose is to educate the public,” Cook said. “We want kids to come out and learn about the past. That’s why we’ve got the mining for gold and Mr. Reeves down there talking about old tools. We’re educating them on rebuilding the Collins Cabin over here. It’s just a lot of fun for the whole family.
“If we don’t care about this stuff now, then it’s going to be gone. The Historical Society was created because we were about to lose the Old Courthouse. That grassroots effort led to us saving all of these cabins which were donated to us. We wanted to restore them and keep them.
“Today, I just want the kids to get away from that phone, get away from that television and that Xbox controller, and come throw an axe and see how people used to live. Those are my main goals for the kids.”
Historical Society Past President Mickey Cummings was on hand answering questions about the restoration of the Collins Cabin, which is being erected right next to the 1906 Butt-Mock House that serves as the site of the Mountain Life Museum.
“It was built sometime between the 1820s and 1850s,” Cummings said. “One of our local farmers, F.C. Collins, was born in that cabin, and the family donated it to us. We are restoring it as much as possible because it is one of the oldest houses in the county.
“What we want is for people to come and see what it is like and to save as much of our heritage as possible, and this is one way of doing that. This cabin has some gun portholes in it, so we know it was built during Indian times. This cabin probably housed eight or nine people. Can you imagine?”
Kathleen Cook, the eldest child of a family of 12, is the curator of the museum and quite a historian in her own right.
“I’m a good storyteller because I remember so many things. I’ve lived through it. I am 82 years old. Everything you see here has been donated,” Cook said, indicating the many museum exhibits. “The doctor’s equipment there belonged to Dr. Herbert Edge, and he was the doctor who delivered me.
“This is the Butt-Mock House, and we have worked on this for some time. Ms. Mock was my teacher who taught history and French. We used to eat out on the porch and have chocolate milk and tomato sandwiches. My team and I have spent many hours making this home look the way it once did.”
The work of the Historical Society continues today, and so the idea of the fundraiser was born to help finance the projects these folks are working on. It is a true labor of love, and Union County is taking great pains to keep the past alive.
For more information, visit https://www.unioncountyhistory.org/.
