CROSS KEYS — This weekend’s Living History Event VI is being funded by a donation from the Timken Company Charitable Trust.
Union County Museum Director Ola Jean Kelly announced that Bob Hart, plant manager for the Timken Tyger River plant, had presented the Union County Historical Society with a check for $2,000. Kelly said the funds, which come from the Timken Company Charitable Trust, will be used to help sponsor the Historical Society’s Living History VI event this weekend at the Cross Keys House.
“We’re very grateful,” Kelly said Wednesday. “It helped us with printing costs and advertising and other expenses.”
This is the second donation Timken has made to the society. Earlier this month, Hart presented Kelly and other society members with a $60,000 donation from the Timken Foundation. The funds will be used by the society for renovations to the Cross Keys House including the installation of heating and air conditioning.
The Living History events, which the society has sponsored for the past six years, features a reenactment of Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ visit to the Cross Keys House on April 30, 1865. Davis, four members of his cabinet including Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, and a large of contingent of Confederate cavalry arrived at the house at lunchtime. They were received by Mary Ann Bobo Whitmire Davis, the owner of the house, who invited Davis and his cabinet members in to the house to have lunch with her.
In addition to the reenactment of Davis’ visit to the Cross Keys House, Kelly said Living History Event VI will also feature infantry, artillery, and cavalry demonstrations; a bonnet maker; a blacksmith; a field hospital and nurses station; a dentist; a lecture on the flags of Civil War South Carolina; and carvers.
Kelly said that the Living History events have grown over the years with 90 reenactors participating in Living History Event V in 2012. She said 102 reenactors have already signed up for Living History Event VI and will be bringing more than 30 horses with them.
Living History Event VI will take place over a three-day period beginning with School Day on Friday which will be open only to the eighth grade students of Union County.
“Friday is School Day for all eighth-graders who are studying South Carolina history as part of their curriculum,” Kelly said. “We are expecting 382 students plus chaperones and teachers. They will see some of the same things the public will see on Saturday and Sunday, but there will also be some special events just for them.”
Living History Event VI will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
The public is invited to attend and bring a chair for the program. Food will be sold and while admission is free, Kelly said donations will be accepted.
For more information about Living History Event VI and the Cross Keys House contact the Union County Museum at 429-5081.
Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@civitasmedia.com.
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