Department News

History Group Does Service Project at Ames Plantation

Union's Delta-Psi Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, accompanied by history faculty and Rutledge Honorary History Club members, did a service project at the Ames Plantation near Grand Junction, Tennessee, on November 8, 2006, as a part of the university's Fourth Annual Day of Remembrance. Mr. Jamie Evans, a Research Associate and the Cultural Resource Manager at the plantation, supervised the project which consisted of participants going to one of the plantation's twenty-six cemeteries, using string to demarcate work areas, and poking metal rods into the ground to find buried gravestones. Designated individuals used shovels to investigate suspected hits. Nineteen people from Union participated in the event, and they probed one-third of the cemetery during their work time.

After lunch, Mr. Evans made a PowerPoint presentation about the history of the plantation and the historical methods used to put its past together. He then took the Union group on a tour of a nineteenth-century farmstead, which was followed by a visit to the plantation manor house. John Crawford, President of the Delta-Psi Chapter, described the day as an "educational and informative time since our group learned the history of the plantation and was able to participate in its preservation through our efforts."

Photos from the Ames Plantation

Ben Burleson (left to right), Jessie Miller, Nikki Henry, Camille McCullar, and John Kay use shovels and metal rods in search of buried gravestones at the Ames Plantation on November 8, 2006.

Racheal Pressnell (left) and Dr. Keith Bates search for gravestones with metal rods at the Ames Plantation on November 8.

Cameron Armstrong (left to right), Joshua Tackett, Racheal Pressnell, and John Crawford check out a suspected gravestone hit at the Ames Plantation on Union's 2006 Day of Remembrance.

Ben Burleson (left) clears debris from a gravestone while Mary Beth Johnson and John Crawford look on at the Ames Plantation on November 8.

Jared Myracle takes a rest from shoveling during the history service project at the Ames Plantation on November 8.

Dr. Judy LeForge (left) and Cassie Harris read the inscription on a gravestone at the Ames Plantation on November 8.

Mr. Jamie Evans of the Ames Plantation uses flour to help read the inscription on a cemetery gravestone. Dr. David Thomas (behind left to right), Joshua Abbotoy, and Rachel Campbell look on during the 2006 history service project at the Ames Plantation.

Participants in the history service project take a rest on the front steps of the Ames Plantation manor house at the end of their visit on November 8.