Tending to the Dead in Central Appalachia Over time, the responsibility for caring for the deceased shifted from families to professional funeral directors. Initially, communities came together to ensure prompt burials, with women preparing the body and men handling coffin construction and grave digging. Before refrigeration and embalming techniques, individuals were buried swiftly to preventContinue reading “Thomas A. Helms, Undertaker in Blacksburg, Virginia”
Category Archives: Government
Mayors of the Town of Blacksburg
After the General Assembly’s action in March 1871 establishing the Corporation of the Town of Blacksburg, the town’s Board of Trustees convened to organize under the granted town charter. The inaugural town election occurred on the fourth Tuesday in May 1871, resulting in the election of Thomas W. Jones as Blacksburg’s first mayor along with six council members.
Gathering Blacksburg History 