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Bland County Historical Society |
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The Bland County Historical Society is located in the "old jail building" on the courthouse square. Volunteers are at the jail each Friday (April - December) for research and shopping, and on other days by appointment. Phone (276) 688-0088 |
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In 2017
The Bland County Historical Society was contacted by Mr. Bill Wheeler, a volunteer at the Virginia War Memorial, in Richmond, VA. Mr. Wheeler asked us to participate as Bland Countians by helping him obtain more specific information for our fallen heroes from Bland County. He
was compiling a database of these men for the entire state of Virginia. He was specifically interested in historical items that local historical societies might have for the fallen heroes such as:
*Individual photos (high school, college, or picture in uniform)
*Brief Bio (what they liked to do, information about their military unit and death
BCHS compiled a list of 44 military personnel from Bland County who died during military conflicts in World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War, Gulf States Wars I and II.
The BCHS Board of Directors voted to begin work on this project by seeking volunteers to find information for the Virginia War Memorial, to build a database at BCHS of the War Dead, and to ultimately establish an exhibit of our findings at the Bland County Historical Society. We set a goal of Memorial Day, May 30, 2017 to have our exhibit ready.
Volunteers generoulsly donated their time to work on this project. In addition to working on this worthwhile project, they become acquainted with our BCHS holdings in the Bogle Library, our BCHS Database, our Obituary Collection, our Marriage Certificate Collection, and our extensive Bland Messenger Collection. In addition, they searched for information online through Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, the Library of Virginia, the National Archives, etc. to find information about these men.
In addition to submitting our information to the Virginia War Memorial, it was decided to produce both a calendar (The BCHS 2108 Calendar) and a book honoring the Fallen Heroes. Both are available for sale in our office and on our online store.
There is also an online version of our book available for viewing. It is a pdf version, so you can view it with Adobe Acrobat or the free Adobe Reader. If you do not have either, click here to download the free reader. Once the Fallen Heroes book is open, you can use Control-F to open a search window if you want to find a particular hero.
You can see our submissions and all of Virginiaa's Fallen Heroes on the Virgina War Memorial Foundation website.
