NEWS OF DUKE HOMESTEAD
Fall 2017
Volume 39, Issue 2
GOLD LEAF
Inside this issue:
cific region, or “circuit”. These (Continued on page 4)
On Saturday, September 30 costumed staff and volunteers at Duke Homestead interpreted a 19th century Methodist revival for our “Catch A Fire” event. Visitors attended a revival ser-vice led by a circuit-riding preacher in the 3rd Tobacco Factory, followed by a question and answer session and a tour of the 1852 farmhouse of Washington Duke. Each room of the farmhouse displayed a theme related to the revival, including discussions of the life of a circuit-rider, the social importance of the event, food served at the event, an en-slaved person’s perspective of the service and its themes, and
the impact of the Methodist Church and revivals on the Duke family.
“Catch a Fire” inter-preted a major evan-gelical movement in the Methodist Church during the early 19th century. Organized churches were not yet preva-lent in rural Pied-mont North Carolina, so preachers would ride on horseback, spreading the Gos-pel to the settlers on the fron-tier.
Each preacher traveled a spe-
Methodism in 19th Century North Carolina
1, 4
Financial Report, Upcoming Events
2
From the Site Manager’s Desk
3
Duke Homestead Rentals
3
Team Updates
5
Christmas by Candlelight
5
Membership Form
6
Circuit rider on the cover of Harper’s Weekly, 1867
Methodism in 19th Century North Carolina
By William Bryant About GOLD LEAF
The Duke Homestead Education and History
Corporation publishes GOLD LEAF. The Corporation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the devel-opment of the Duke Homestead State Historic Site and Tobacco Museum. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Visit the website, dukehomestead.org, for more information. This newsletter is published sem-iannually and is available free of charge for digital subscribers. A paper copy can be received for $5.00 a year.
For more information, write:
Duke Homestead Education and History Corp.
2828 Duke Homestead Road
Durham, NC 27705
Or e-mail: duke@ncdcr.gov.
DHEHC President: Thomas Shaw
GOLD LEAF Editor: Katie Vanhoy
Printing: Sir Speedy
Financial Report
Mary Bell
Treasurer
The funds of the Duke Homestead Education and History Corporation as of , 2017 are as follows:
General Fund Savings: $14,382.89
General Fund Checking: $ 9,120.23
Scottrade Account: $57,290.81
Total Assets: $80,793.93
Page 2
2018 Events
Stay tuned to dukehomestead.org for details on upcoming events!
Born at Duke Homestead March 31 Does birth have a history? Absolutely. Join us to learn more about what it meant to be born at Duke Homestead.
Mythbusting Day—Historic Houses May 19 We want to deputize you as a historic house myth-buster! Special themed tours all about common misconceptions of his-toric houses.
Family Days June 16, July 28, September 8 Bring your family for historically-themed activities and a craft you can take home!
Pork, Pickles & Peanuts July 14 A celebration of North Carolina food his-tory and culture, and a fun-filled day for the whole family.
Mythbusting Day—Tobacco August 18 Think you know tobacco? We are taking on some of the biggest myths about the history and biology of this crop via spe-cial guided tours.
Harvest & Hornworm Festival August 25 See historic tobacco harvesting practices in action, and catch the only tobacco auction left in Durham.
Tobacco Basket-Making Workshop September 15 Make your own mini tobacco basket!
Halloween Phantasmagoria October 26 Explore the site in search of Victorian awe, wonder, and Halloween traditions.
Christmas by Candlelight December 7 and 14 Kick off the holiday season with this an-nual favorite!
Page 3
VOLUME 39, ISSUE 2
From the Site Manager’s Desk
We have had a wonderful fall, and are gearing up for the Christmas season here at Duke Homestead.
This fall our staff was hon-ored to once again support the NC State Fair Tobacco Heritage activities. These two weeks in October offer us the chance to learn from people who grew up farming tobacco, and to see buyers and auctioneers in action. Plus, this year I seized the opportunity to take a looping/stringing/tying lesson from Mrs. Ruth Coats. (She won the Looping Contest at our annual Harvest and Hornworm Festival this August, and has won at the State Fair before.)
Because of the fantastic support for professional
development from the Duke Homestead Education and History Corporation, our full-time interpretive staff were able to visit Washington, DC this September. We sought examples of excellence in interpretation and the latest in museum exhibiting to bring back to Duke Home-
stead. We visited the new National Museum of African American History and Cul-ture, took a Museum Hack tour of the National Gallery of Art, toured President Lin-coln’s Cottage, and met with the Chief Curator of Work and Industry at the National Museum of American History about interpreting tobac-co. It was an inspirational trip that will inform our work here for a long time. Thank you for making that possible.
I’m thankful for all the great people I get to work with, and their tremen-dous support for Duke Homestead. Wishing you a happy holiday season and New Year!
-Jessica Shillingsford
Looking for an event space?
Look no further. Duke Homestead is avail-able to rent!
We have hosted meetings, DIY classes, family reunions, corporate retreats, and weddings/engagement parties.
Our rates are affordable, and all rental fees go directly to Duke Homestead. These funds go into site operations, his-toric preservation, site maintenance, and programming.
Plus, it’s a great way to spread the word about the site.
If you’d like to rent Duke Homestead, please email duke@ncdcr.gov. preachers, called “circuit riders”, were generally young, single men that did not have a formal education. They rarely served longer than one year in a circuit, in order to prevent the tempta-tion of growing too familiar with the local people and settling down.
Circuit riders had a simple plan of evangelism: They went where the people lived, and they minis-tered to their needs. Often, one of the first visitors to a family who had just arrived on the fron-tier was a Methodist circuit rider. He would offer religious instruc-tion to the family and to any neighbors who wished to join them.
These meetings were an integral part of rural society in 19th cen-tury North Carolina, providing a focus for community life. Be-yond the family, religious institu-tions were responsible for shap-ing one’s conscience and culture. North Carolinians were likely to develop their most viable and intimate personal relationships through the church.
(Continued from page 1)
Francis Asbury, the first Method-ist circuit rider to visit North Car-olina, visited the home of John Taylor Duke, grandfather of Washington Duke, on June 21, 1780. In his journal, he wrote:
“Wednesday, 21st (June) – I had to ride alone better than twelve miles to Mr. Duke’s; when I came there, found about thirty people, and they quite ignorant. After preaching I took dinner, and in talking found three or four of them tenderly serious; gave them advice: the man and his wife have had conviction, and have sinned it away. They say it was the disputes of the Baptists that turned them aside. I then rode home with a Mr. Green, a Presbyterian, and was much blessed in reading Watt’s first volume of sermons.”
William (“Uncle Billie”) Duke was the oldest of Washington Duke’s nine siblings and a powerful in-fluence on his younger brother. He was also a Methodist lay preacher, and taught Washing-ton to have a profound appreci-ation for the Methodist faith. “Uncle Billie” also used his prop-erty to hold large revivals prior
to the establishment of perma-nent church buildings in the Durham area.
Outside of his family, clearly the most important institution for Washington Duke and the one that exerted the greatest influ-ence on him from childhood was the Methodist Church. The Church emphasized the desira-bility, even the necessity, of giv-ing on the part of those who were able. Thus, the seeds planted in the Duke family by the Methodist Church and her circuit-riding preachers pro-foundly influenced the philan-thropic endeavors of the Duke family for generations to come.
Later in life, Washington was known to say with regularity that, “If I amount to anything in this world, it’s because of the Methodist Church and her circuit preachers.”
Methodism in 19th Century North Carolina, cont.
Page 4
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VOLUME 39, ISSUE 2
Team Updates
Many of you know that our longtime staff member (most recently Assistant Site Manag-er), Julia Rogers, left Duke Homestead in September 2017. She fulfilled a long-term goal of moving to Ottowa, Canada. We miss her passion, creativity, and dedication to Duke Homestead, but, she is doing great in Canada!
Our Historic Interpreter II, Katie Vanhoy, was promoted into the role of Assistant Site Manager. Congratulations, Katie! Katie is set-tling into her new position, and we know she’s going to do a great job working with our part-time staff, interns, and volunteers.
We welcome our new Historic Interpreter II, Caitlin Avinger to the team! Caitlin will lead our education program and interpretive ef-forts. She comes to us from the Houston Mari-time Museum, and earned a Master’s degree in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program.
That means that we have a fully staffed team. Please stop by any time to say hello!
Looking to get more involved?
We love working with volunteers. You can learn new skills with us or put your talents to work for us.
Volunteering with Duke Homestead might be a good fit if any of the following applies to you…
You love working with people. You love work-ing with kids. You love telling stories. You love research. You love organizing. You want to learn more about local history. You are crafty. You can sew. You are creative. You are pas-sionate about Duke Homestead and want to do more, even if you’re not sure what that means! Email duke@ncdcr.gov to volun-teer with us!
If you haven’t visited in a while, you may see some new faces. We are lucky to have some talented people on board!
Ashley Adams, part-time Historic Interpret-er, and Kinue Beugre, student intern, are both NCCU Eagles. That makes 3 Eagles to rival our 3 Wolfpack staff members... Hannah Marley joined our team as a part-time Histor-ic Interpreter this July.
Brooke Csuka, Bobby Jahn, and Lauren May are all giving time to Duke Homestead on top of their ‘day jobs.’ You may see them giving tours, helping us to research and devel-op special events, working behind the scenes, or greeting you in costume.
And you may know that we lured a volunteer from Bennett Place to join Duke Homestead. Bill Bryant is a wonderful storyteller, and has also helped us to develop some of our recent events. (And wrote a newsletter article!)
Thank you to everyone who supports Duke Homestead. It’s no exaggeration to say that we couldn’t do it without you! GOLD LEAF
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