Historical Photos of Murray City's
Chautauqua Festival
June 22, 2003
12-5
At the Murray City Train Depot Grounds
Many came out and enjoyed their Hometown festival!
It was an excellent day to enjoy friends, family, good food , and wonderful entertainment on the old train depot grounds.
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Larry Mitchell, Alice and Todd Hawk; John Winnenburg; Marlene Mitchell; Vernal Lambert and local children
There was Story Telling and Games for kids
Music, Hungarian Cabbage Rolls (mmm mmm), and Train Rides
Dorothy Simon has been involved in Murray City organizations for many years. She is currently president of the Murray City Improvement Committee, past president of the Murray City Alumni Association and other organizations. She served as Master of Ceremonies for the Chautauquas for two years. Image 2 is Dorothy with Fireman and EMT Brandon Quinn singing the National Anthem in 2002. Dorothy served in the military and is a veteran. She has been a wonderful advocate for her hometown!
National Anthem 2003 (sang by brothers Anthony and Brandon Quinn)
12:15-12:30 - Murray City History (Sandy Quinn) Sharing her research from the Athens County Courthouse explaining How Murray Brown purchased the Lafollette farm for $600 and sold it to the Railroad and Coal Mine company the same day for $20,000. Later the town built on this farm became known as Murray City after this industrious realtor, Murray Brown. Having grown up in Murray City, Sandy has a long interest in the history of her hometown, when as a 7th grader, a teacher had her conduct her first research on the history of the town. Teacher Grace Thomas loaned her a copy of the 1907 Murray City history book and Sandy was hooked on history from then on. Sandy is a retired teacher of the Ohio public school system, she is the webmaster of OHGenWeb, and also Athens and Hocking county History and Genealogy.
12:30-1:30 Historical Music
If anyone can send us the names of this lovely couple they made a wonderful performance!
History and Storytelling
1:45-2:30 - Historical Snowfork Encampment Reenactment
Story of the naming of Monday Creek. Standing with the Trimble township sign was Nancy Green. A member of the Rural Action team she was instrumental in organizing the Chautauqua festivals in cooperation with the Little Cities of Black Diamonds and the Murray City Improvement Committee. Nancy succombed to cancer and is sorely missed by family and friends.
2:30 - Local Talent- Vernal Bateman Lambert (banjoist),
 Vernal playing the
train whistle song. I am going to try to get a sample for this
webpage. She was truly wonderful and many of us young persons
under fifty years of age had never been priveledged
to hear music like this before.
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 Above photo of Vernal when she was young and playing as the opening act for famous jazz banjo musician Eddie Peabody in Las Vegas. By clicking on Eddie's name you can hear his recording at the National Archives website. |
Vernal Lambert wonderfully playing "The Train Whistle Song"
Vernal Lambert is another Murray City Ohio icon having played around the country singing and performing on her banjo, she was active in Murray City affairs for many years and was a member of the town council. She has moved to Florida due to health reasons and we sure do miss her!
3:00 Bonnie Warner, was next, a great Local Gospel singer who I did not get to photograph as I was on stage assisting her with her music.
3:30 from Cleveland: The Quinn Brothers
Singing Almost Heaven "Murray City"
these Cleveland brothers loved to come to MC and ham it up on stage for the festival goers, friends and relatives!
4:00- Double Shot (Country Rock)
Thank You Double Shot Your Great Music, and For all Your Hard Work and Equipment Use! What a great group of guys to perform for us, they were excellent.
We thank everyone who performed, who set up, who cooked and made the festivals possible
and especially Larry Mitchell who physically set up the majority of the facilities for the festivals.
The festivals were Sponsored by Little Cities of Black Diamonds Council ,
Murray City Improvement Committee, and Rural Action
*Behind the Scenes Photo's click here*
We Thank you for your support! It was hard work but we sure made some wonderful memories together!
Larry Mitchell standing and Junior Keeton,
past Pantry operators, MCIC members, and former town councilmen. Larry is also a former Ward Township Trustee
Just days before our 2003 festival we lost a dear friend and member of the Murray City Improvement Committee "Junior" Floyd Keeton. Junior had just received the Hocking County Volunteer of the year award for 2003. He is sadly missed by all who knew him.
HTML and Photos by Sandra Mitchell-Quinn
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